Anyone ever cook a (fresh) loofah?

[Robin Garr]

At our neighborhood farmers' market, I picked up a fresh loofah from a local Asian farm. Have any of you ever cooked one of these? There seem to be dozens of Chinese and Southeast Asian recipes online. 

Is this the same item used in the shower albeit in a different form?

[Robin Garr]

Is this the same item used in the shower albeit in a different form?

Jon, indeed it is. The shower loofahs are left on the vine until they fully dry. These are harvested as edible vegetables while they're small and tender. (This one is maybe 10 inches long and 1 or 1 1/2 inches in diameter - about the size of an English cucumber.)

[Robin Garr]

Late report - I screwed up and lost the photo, but peeled and cut up, stir-fried with onions, ginger and garlic, a shot of soy and a dab of Thai green curry paste, the loofah tasted a lot like zucchini. That is to say, good, but not really exotic or even exciting.

peeled and cut up, stir-fried with onions, ginger and garlic, a shot of soy and a dab of Thai green curry paste, the loofah tasted a lot like zucchini.

That is indeed damning with very faint praise. I long ago concluded that almost everything that tastes good and has zucchini in it tastes just as good or better with no zucchini in it. To have to treat the loofah with all that stuff just to approach mediocrity indicates that sponge is indeed its highest and best use!

Interesting! We received loofahs in a CSA box a couple of years ago but they'd been dried by that point and were therefore only good for shower purposes. I didn't know you could eat them fresh.