Texas Locavore

Eggplant likes it hot, and that makes it a great crop for Texas. But is it a great crop for you? It’s one of the great polarizing vegetables - anyone not passionately for it is against it. But already, we’re proving how little many of us know eggplant. Though we treat it like a “vegetable,” it’s really not. Techincally speaking, it’s a fruit - a berry, in fact, and a member of the nightshade family. Historically speaking, it’s rather entertaining. “Few foods can lay claim to causing insanity, acting as an aphrodisiac, and serving as a dental cosmetic,” begins its entry in the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. In fifth-century China, women used dye made from purple eggplant skin to color their teeth a handsome metallic hue. Then early Europeans suspected it could cause madness for its relationship to belladonna, that deadly nightshade, and sixteenth-century Spanairds sought it out for its love-inducing qualities. Still not entertained? Its French name, aubergine, can be traced back to a Sanskrit word that means “wind-go,” a term word historians take as a reference to flatulence. Today chefs seek it out for caponata, baba ganoush, and more. My favorite eggplant preparation in Austin is the Melanzane pizza at Mandola’s Italian Market. Left to my own devices, though, I’ll simply roast it - with plenty of olive oil. I have a hunch eggplant haters may have suffered too many low-fat preparations, for fat is essential for bringing out eggplant’s savory succulence. We can expect to keep finding local eggplant at Texas farmers’ markets through the fall.