Alamat ng Ampalaya

Ampalaya is the Filipino name for bitter melon. It is a green, bumpy fruit that people cook in many homes. Ilocano speakers call it paria. Wikipedia says the Filipino name comes from the idea of bitterness, linked to the word ampait. In Ilocos, the vegetable is a main part of pinakbet, a stew of local vegetables with a bagoong-based stock. People also stir-fry it with ground beef and oyster sauce, or cook it with egg and tomato.

An alamat is a Tagalog tale that explains where a thing comes from. In the tales about the ampalaya, the fruit tastes bitter because of a person's sharp temper or deep sorrow. Tellers do not agree on who that person is, so the plot changes from one telling to the next.

No single reliable text of this alamat is known. The Wikipedia article on the plant has no folklore at all. No fixed version of the story is established.