It is crowned the King of Vegetables and is known as eggplant in countries like U.S., Aus... With the hue and cry over Bt Brinjal, I just started wondering why I hate this seemingly lovely vegetable... I am sure there are many lovers of it including my immediate family members... But somehow brinjal could never relish my tongue...
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It all started when I was a kid, when my tongue was learning the tricks of the trade and when your mother had all the control over what you can and what you cannot taste... When, for the first time brinjal made its entry into my soul.. like many kids my body after a sequence of chemo-physio-thermo-kinetic reactions decided to frighten my mom with an allergic reaction. Out came abnormal bumps and out went brinjal from my diet. Little did I know that it was not only my skin but my muscles had joined the war too. (FYI tongue is a muscle)
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As I grew up my mother again decided to take control of my diet. Brinjal can no longer be denied entry. Allergy can no longer be an excuse. So what do you do when you are force served? You keep it in a corner of your plate, promise that you will eat at the end of the meal and then silently manage to tuck it and throw it when nobody notices. But if you are caught, you have to gulp it down ensuring that it never kisses your taste buds, lest you have to 'make' faces. (So with a laborious maneuver you take the small pieces, position it perfectly to fall directly into the throat and in a split second motion allow it to pass through the oesophagus). Slowly my mother gracefully understood that I was smart enough to waste it (without their notice of course) and stopped feeding me, thinking 'if you don't eat it, you are at a loss'. Thinking of 'punishing' me, she 'rewarded' me by keeping Brinjal away! So the deal was every time she makes Brinjal, she should also make my favorite tatoes (potatoes) so that I have some veggies to eat! Awesome!
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Why do I hate the King? Is it because it somehow for me resembled a 'fish' and being a vegetarian I just could not stand it? Well, frankly having never eaten or not even seen a cooked fish dish, the argument looks too far fetched. The only fish that was close to being blue, like Brinjal, is the Blue Whale and I have no clue if someone eats it! Or maybe was it the very appearance? Its 'kozha kozha' (mucilagenous/sticky) nature that made me feel odd, whenever I touched it or put it in my mouth? Or is it just a feeling that I could not overcome?
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So after years of abstaining, I finally decided to try it again. After coming to the US, when my cooking experiments had temporarily taken rest, I thought why not give it a try! The egg plants in the US resembled the size of a blue whale's egg (oops whale is a mammal.. never mind.. if a whale decides to lay eggs, it might resemble it?). Chopped it into big pieces.. fried it.. spices.. the dish was ready... it din't have any resemblance, what so ever, with what my mother makes. Good for me, I thought. This should be better than how my mother makes. First spoon....yucccccccccck! Never! Never will I attempt again! But within minutes, I reneged and the buck I wasted on my experiment found its way into my stomach somehow, after fighting and gulping for 30 minutes! Phew!
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I think I found the answer, rather an excuse. Wiki tells me that Brinjal has the highest amount of nicotine among all edible plants and 9 kgs of Brinjal has as much nicotine as a cigarette! Since, I am a non-smoker I will not eat Brinjal! Its NOT a food for thought for me.. He he..
