Expanding Nutritional Horizons: Eggplant

Eggplant has always been sort of hit or miss for me.  What is an eggplant, after all?  It's sort of like a squash, but not quite.  I like pretty much all varieties of squash I've tried, regardless of preparation.  But eggplant--not so much. Eggplant is so pretty on the outside, and ugly on the inside.  If it's not prepared just right, it also has a very bitter taste. The only preparation I'd ever truly enjoyied until recently was eggplant parmigiana, which almost shouldn't count--everything tastes good fried.

Then last May, my husband and I were on vacation in France.  We spent a few days in Provence, spending time in the little city of Avignon, and taking day trips to the Côtes du Rhône wine area and the Pont du Gard aqueduct. One afternoon, after doing a tour of the Palais des Papes (where the pope used to reside in Avignon back in the 1300s), we went for lunch at an outdoor cafe just off the place outside the palace. I remember that it was very sunny and windy, just as it was during most of our visit to Provence. (Le mistral was blowing in earnest the whole time.)  Luckily, this cafe had a semi-enclosed patio, so we could enjoy our lunch outside without being blown away!  As most lunches in France seem to be, ours was a relaxed and lengthy event--partly because we went with the three-course lunch special. For our first course, we had a choice between the eggplant provençale (aubergines confites a la provençale) and French onion soup (soupe de l'oignon gratinée).  I'd been wanting to try something in the traditional provençale style, so I ordered the eggplant, but fearing I'd be disappointed.  (My husband, being slightly more risk averse when it comes to food, ordered the soup.)

Imagine my surprise when this dish came out, smelling amazing, and tasting better than I could have imagined.  It was basically eggplant cooked until it was incredibly tender and sweet, and then topped with a garlicky fresh tomato sauce.  My description doesn't begin to do it justice. With a glass of chilled French rosé (dry and refreshing), this was perhaps one of the most memorable lunches I've ever eaten. (I had roasted chicken for my main course, and some kind of caramel dessert--both were delicious, but the eggplant was such a revelation that I rarely recall the rest of the meal!)

I was so impressed by my eggplant experience in Provence that I decided last summer to try to recreate the dish. My result was okay, but nothing like the delicious dish I had discovered in France.  I had a hard time cooking the eggplant sufficiently such that the sweetness would come out without burning it entirely, so it was still a bit bitter. But the sauce? It was fantastic!

The bottom line on my feelings about eggplant: it's not going to be on the top of my list of favorite vegetables, but I appreciate being proven wrong about some things. I won't be so skeptical the next time. And there will be a next time, for sure.

What vegetable or food have you always been wary of?  Did a special dish change your mind?