Mystery Produce Review: Less Common Eggplants

It's not that I'm dreadfully monotonous in my usual eggplant purchases. Depending on whim (and special pricing) I'll pick up the standard "big purple" variety, the skinny elongated Japanese/Chinese variety, or the cute little miniature Indian variety (yes, I know there are lots of different varieties of eggplants in India, but these are the ones labeled "Indian" in the store). But since the stall at the farmers' market offered all sorts of shapes and sizes at a single mix-and-match price, in addition to a long-skinny-purple and a medium-bulbous-purple, I got one of the pure white egg-shaped ones (well, if we're talking something on the scale of a turkey egg or so) and a medium-sized white-and-purple striped one.

Each was either split in half or in quarters (depending on size), brushed with olive oil, and sprinkled with seasoned salt, then roasted at 350F for about 40 minutes.

Alas, like many other colorful vegetables, they came out of the oven all looking the same, with the variously-hued skins having all turned darkish. I couldn't notice any particular difference in taste between them -- they were all quite delicious, with only a slight variation coming from differences in thickness (and so, in internal heating).

Conclusion: while exotically colored eggplants make for a nice still-life, and are impressive in the market basket, just go for whichever variety is on special and matches the intended use.

Political hazards of the Bay Area (but not what you might think)

I suppose, given where I live, it was only to be expected that when I posted on the neighborhood e-mail list asking for recommendations for an ant exterminator (my previous one having gone out of business sometime in the last year), over half the responses -- with widely varying degrees of snarkiness -- attempted to remedy my Mistaken Notion that poison was an appropriate response to ant infestations. Yes, in an ideal world we would all simply keep our houses spotlessly clean of anything an ant might want (including water sources) and patiently wait for the scouting parties to give up and go home. But while I might impose such a high standard of eco-patience on myself, I don't really feel free to impose it on my tenants. Fortunately, a minority of e-mail list participants actually recommended some companies to try. (I'm trying to avoid any of the "big name" exterminators since their web sites make it fairly clear that they prefer a scorched earth policy and don't understand the concept of "beneficial insects".)