From Weez, a comfort recipe: tinolang manok, or chicken-ginger soup. Not having had that for a while, I thought of cooking some up with the chicken in my freezer, but the recipe lacks one ingredient which I’ve always had in my tinola since childhood: upo, or bottle gourd — which is fairly hard to find around DC. I’ve looked in Giant, Whole Foods, Eastern Market, and the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market, without success. Probably a good thing, too; even a small upo would have difficulty fitting in my tiny refrigerator.

Can anyone suggest a suitable squash or gourd alternative? Note that I don’t like chayote.

(The chicken became a pot of adobo instead.)