In New Orleans, for reasons lost in the Delta mists since Napoleon sold the place to Jefferson in 1803, they call this pale-green, delicate vegetable mirliton, standard French for a toy reed flute. Elsewhere in areas of former French domination, this cousin of gourds, melons, and squashes is a christophine. In Spanish-speaking areas, it takes its Mexican name, chayote, from the Nahuatl chayotl. My mother knew it as the vegetable pear. It appears sporadically in U.S. supermarkets, identifiable mainly because it doesn’t look like anything else you’ve seen, with its nobbled, ridged pale green skin. The flesh is paler still and, when cooked, has an evanescent mild squashy taste. In the center is a flat, white nutlike seed said to be edible.
