Could you be talking about chayote, Vicki? Some people refer to them as "vegetable pears". They belong to the Cucurbitaceae family along with gourds, melons, cucumbers and squash.

Altho' they are originally from Mexico, chayote is grown around the world - including in Asia. I understand that they can be used at any stage of growth. The skin becomes quite hard at maturity and they can be kept for a few weeks (months?).

Link below to chayote article, if that's what your pear squash is, it may help.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: GROW CHAYOTE - Mother Earth News

It was much larger than chayote. And a darker green. I'm familiar with chayote- would grow it if I had some place for the vines to go - but I only have a small community garden plot.

This is why I tried to be specific about the size - definitely more in the butternut squash range.

I would buy it and experiment it - however I'm not a big squash fan - most are too sweet for me. And without knowing what it is - I'm not sure about the cooking procedure.

Vicki

Vicki, what you are decribing sounds like a "cushaw" (C. argyrosperma, formerly known as C. mixta). These are very similar to "Butternut" in shape, but often have longitudinal stripes. There are Japanese varieties, scroll down to the "Japanese Pie" photo in link below.

There are other Japanese pear-shaped squash as well, such as "Red Kuri" (C. maxima), which is further down on the same web page.

Here is a link that might be useful: Japanese Pie Squash

i've been trying to find this info, too...this is the best i've come up with so far

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/207354/

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/cagohygrbe.html

A search under "pear gourd" brings quite a few interesting sites.

For instance:

Here is a link that might be useful: pear gourd

There are a number of squashes from Asian seed companies that are pear shaped although they usually describe it as Papaya. Fairy ( Known-You Seeds ( Taiwan) vended by Territorial, Kitazawa in the USA fits your description fairly well. Phoenix from the same company is lighter green with less pronounced stripes. There is also a Papaya Sweet but it is more of a purple color as is Papaya Golden. ( Evergreen Seeds)
I grow cushaws and they are large ( 10-20 lb class).
There are pear shaped bottle gourds, but these like the summer squash Papaya Pear are used in the immature stage.