We Ate Our Scrubbing Pads!

They were “Ding Gua Gua” (顶呱呱) as Scrubbing Pads and were delicious  as well.

A routine Operations Clean-Up at the kitchen sink one morning reminded me of a kind of gourd that we used to grow in our kampong house compound. The young gourd could be cooked and eaten — quite yummy actually.

But if we left the gourds to grow to maturity and eventually dry out, the skins could be peeled off to reveal a net-like core of fibrous innards. We then cut this core into several pieces to serve as scrubbing pads or sponges, mainly for washing dishes in the kitchen.

The name is called “luffa” gourd, or “petola” in Malay, but am not sure of its Chinese name.

A truly environment-friendly lifestyle it was. Wonder has anyone used these stuff, or is still using them ?