The Gourmet Student: New Food Challenge #3: Thai Eggplant

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

New Food Challenge #3: Thai Eggplant

Recently I wrote about the United Supermarket that opened in London, Ontario. I told you about all the fabulous produce that I saw! The longbeans, fresh horseradish, bittermelon, sugar cane and so on and so on. I made a decision right then and there - I need to buy something new and share it with you!

So first up is the Thai Eggplant (aren't they adorable?). I want to just pick em up and eat em! But not really...they are hard and raw. Actually they were labelled Indian Eggplant when I bought them, but after trying to do some research on them, turns out they were Thai. Fo sho.

These eggplants are about the size of a golf ball and quite firm to the touch. When I cut them open, this is what I found: a whole lot of little black seeds. Interesting.

Since I have never seen these cute little eadile golfballs, I had to google it. But there wasn't much on the history behind the veg. I mainly found articles on what the heck to do with them. But I did find a few little blurbs.

Wikipedia claimed that the green and white thai eggplants were the most commonly used eggplant in Thai cooking.

According to Thai Table.com, these Thai eggplants are most commonly used in curries because when cooked they become soft and soak up the sauce nicely. Also, this article mentions that not eveyone eats the black seeds inside. Well do you think I read that before or after I ate them, yes, afterwards, and I am still alive and eggplant plants are not growing inside my tummy. So I would say it is fine to eat.

Now since I was not about to eat them raw, I needed to figure out to cook these. The recipe that appeared to be most common was Basil Thai Eggplant. By the time I wrote this post, I have already tasted this dish, so I can make a rating on the Taste. Basically I found that Thai Eggplants taste just like..."North American" eggplants (you know, the purple ones!). The only difference would be the texture, the skin is firmer, therefore there is more of a bite to them. All in all, you will have to stay tuned as I venture off into basil land and cook me up some green golf balls!