Chinese Okra/Loofah

My Mom makes a really good Okinawan dish called hechima, which is a type of loofah, I think, so I figured I'd try to grow and prepare some to eat.  To be honest, I'm not sure that Chinese Okra is the exact same thing as hechima because according to online photos, the Chinese Okra looks rougher on the outside, whereas hechima looks smoother and more like an oblong melon or squash.

The Chinese Okra I grew from seed started out slowly, but it quickly (I'm talking within a few days) vined upward.  It grows similarly to cucumber in that it's a vining plant with big, broad leaves, and without pollinators, I had to self-pollinate both.  It took a while before I figured out that I needed to self-pollinate this plant, and by then all the female flowers had died off.

Female flower, which eventually becomes the loofah after pollination

My first harvest consisted of a single, giant Chinese Okra.  See below (remote control for scale).

I guess because of the way it was hanging on the vine, it was also very twisted, which made it a little challenging to skin and slice. 

Since I only had one, I didn't think it'd be enough to make one dish by itself.  Instead, I peeled all the skin off, sliced it into cross sections, sauteed it in some oil, then threw it into some leftover miso soup.

Oishikatta!  I've got more female flowers on the vine now and three new plants coming up, so hopefully I'll have a big hechima harvest soon -- enough to make a dish all by itself.