So I ordered an grilled eggplant and bell pepper sandwich for dinner tonight and CDMCC asks me if I liked eggplants. I said they’re usually pretty good when cooked correctly. Elizabeth chimes in and says, “Who doesn’t like eggplants?” CDMCC chuckles and says he doesn’t hate eggplants but dislikes them. I’m going, someone else recently told me he didn’t like eggplants too. So I’m racking through my brain trying to remember who it was. I finally just assumed it was Vandel since he visited here recently and it could’ve been him. Elizabeth says it’s most likely Vandel too since Vandel and CDMCC are so similar in habits, likes and dislikes.
However, on my drive home, I finally remember who it was! It was Tekman, my colleague at work. We were at some chinese restaurant for lunch and another colleauge orders stir fry eggplants or something like that and he looked pretty disgusted. But I don’t blame him. He’s a carnivore, a pure meat eater and hates most veggies, which I would say CDMCC differs quite differently. But as this eggplant thought continued, I was thinking… Why are they called eggplants and why do some people dislike it?
From World Wide Words: The name of eggplant was given it by Europeans in the middle of the eighteenth century because the variety they knew had fruits that were the shape and size of goose eggs. That variety also had fruits that are a whitish or yellowish colour rather than the wine purple that is more familiar to us nowadays. So the sort they knew really did look as though it had fruits like eggs.
Another interesting fact is that eggplants are fruits, but just like tomatos, they are known as a vegetable.
Honestly, if I heard the name eggplant, I’d also have some weird image of what an eggplant would taste like. You’re mixing meat and vegetables here. However, I never knew of the english name till like the middle of elementary school. In my household, I’ve always known it as 茄子 and I have to say my mom makes a pretty good eggplant dish. Then again, eggplants do have a weird soft spongy texture which some may dislike. It’s really hard to think of another food with a similar type of texture.