[Sca-cooks] eggplant bitterness was Cooking Turnips

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Bonne de Traquair:
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>At last!  Someone on my side of the kitchen when it comes to
>eggplant!  I have heard of and tried many ways of getting rid of the
>bitterness--nothing works. I have tried many varieties of eggplant
>that I am advised aren't as bitter as regular eggplant--oh yes they
>are!
>You don't, by any chance, despise grapefruit as well?
>Bonne

'Fraid not. There are very few foods I really seriously dislike. Sea
urchin roe on sushi, frozen lima beans, and most forms (but not all)
of eggplant. Frozen corn gets an honorable mention, but isn't worth
getting upset over. Balut, maybe, but I've never tried it.

It's not that bitterness as such is a problem. Grapefruit is okay,
really bitter beer is even better, and I'm passionately fond of
bitter melon (which may or may not be the same thing as balsam pear,
eaten in India and China). In the case of eggplant, it's a
combination of the bitterness, a slight tendency toward
mucilaginousness (is that a word? mucilaginity?), and finally, to
complete the picture of unpleasantness for me, the little seeds.

I just don't much care for eggplant, and there really doesn't have to
be any particular logic to it, I suspect. I think in the cases of
things like turnips, though, it's mostly a matter of acknowledging
that these things are going to taste a bit sharp/peppery no matter
what you do, and that there is nothing wrong with that, per se. Liver
is _supposed_ to taste like liver, lamb like lamb, fish like fish,
and cabbage like cabbage. You can complement these flavors and
produce surprisingly good dishes that would surprise some people when
they find they like them, but nonetheless, I think we, as a culture,
spend a little too much time trying to disguise certain flavors in
our food.

Awright, the truth is I occasionally eat eggplant without incident,
but it sometimes takes me years to get in the mood for it.

Adamantius, contemplating a torte of eggplants, roasted peppers,
portobello mushrooms, and cheese...
--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER