The White Hat Guide to Eggplants (Aubergines)

The most common variety in Australia is the larger purple variety. This style of eggplant wears a pixie hat and if the tips of the pixie hat (technically called a calyx) are green then the eggplant is fresh. If they are brown and curled it is not fresh.

The smaller variety, shaped more like a zucchini, are often referred to as Lebanese Eggplants in Australia and are equally good for use in rat. There is also a yellowish Asian Eggplant that is used in various South East Asian dishes but that is another story.

Eggplants are the Cinderellas of the vegetable world. True, people occasionally admire their deep purple hue but then they go ahead and make a tasteless mush from them to be served in vegetarian student households. But eggplants bide their time. They know that one day their handsome prince – or, to be more precise, Johnny Turk – will come along and they will be turned into baba ghanoush – but not just any baba ghanoush, but the smoky fresh one using burnt eggplants that the Turks understand so well, and that when they are brought to the table in the form of a baba ghanoush, people will say “how beautiful, how elegant” and the vegetables in the other side dishes will be revealed for what they are – ugly sisters.