"Come along inside... We'll see if tea and buns can make the world a better place."
Kenneth Grahame

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Hi guys! Eggplant is gross!

I have an awkward relationship with eggplant.

Basically, it goes like this:

1. I forget that I hate eggplant.

2. I eat eggplant.

3. I remember that I hate eggplant.

The problem is, one of the things that I really miss since becoming a vegetarian is chicken parmesan.  And at home, we have a restaurant nearby called Tony's that makes an eggplant parmesan that I love more than most other foods.  Mostly because they fry the eggplant beyond recognition, melt a brick of mozzarella on it and cover it in their super awesome tomato sauce.

So when I saw this in Tops, a combination of step one in the eggplant cycle and me missing Tony's made me buy it.

Quick, delicious meal my ass.

It just was not good.  I'll walk you through it, but I'm telling you, it was not good.

So first, I, innocent, wide eyed, hoping for nothing more than delicious eggplant parm, cooked some eggplant.

Warning sign number 1: it still looks like eggplant.

I also cooked up some spaghetti, and then I decided to get fancy.  That's usually when things go wrong for me.

It sort of looks like roadkill...

I thought that if I put the spaghetti, sauce, eggplant and cheese in the pan and then broiled the whole business, it would taste like Tony's.  False.

I was so hopeful when I took this photo.

The noodles/cheese/sauce thing wasn't really bad, but the eggplant peel was weirdly hard and it just made the whole experience unpleasant.  My roommate made something similar later in the week, though, and she seemed to be successful.  You can see her blog post here.  Also, she has a really cool blog that you should read.

Anyways, the eggplant cycle completed itself one more time.  When I reread Becky's blog post just now, I couldn't help thinking it looked delicious, so I guess it's only a matter of time before the cycle starts again.

4 comments:

  1. I just saw you plugged my blog. Thank youu, dear. And I think it tastes better in the pan, except you have to cook it wayyyyy longer than you think it would, otherwise it gets cold the second you take it off the heat. Ohhh, our kitchen...

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  2. I have a similar problem. I go to an Italian restaurant with someone who gets eggplant parmesan and it looks delicious. I tell myself the last 17 times I tried to eat eggplant and got violently ill were just a fluke and really, this time will be just fine. So I eat it, develop debilitating heartburn and nausea, curse the universe and everything in it, and swear never to touch eggplant again. The cycle repeats itself every time I see someone eating eggplant parmesan.

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