Eggplants are the kind of veggie that are hard on me. I'd love to like it, but so far all attempts at making something good out of them have miserably failed. Recipe after recipe, the freaking vegetable - though spreading a heavenly aroma - tastes really foul. I've tried all sorts of recipes I could find, and I was really tempted by the scent, but finally ended up booking the veggie as the sort of thing I would never be able to work with.
Recently, after spending some time with Mommy, I learned a few things about eggplants that changed my mind. She got recently hooked on eggplants, and at my concern about the bitter taste, she told me that the trick to make it taste better is to cut the eggplant in slices and sprinkle them generously with salt. You let the salted slices sit for a little while and then wash the salt away. (A similar method can be found here.) The salt basically sucks the bitter out of the eggplant, so when you cook the eggplant after the procedure, you get a taste much more similar to the wonderful scent it produces.
One of the things she got to love about eggplants is the eggplant cream. With much gusto she told me about how she loved to eat eggplant cream with bread. While I'm sure it must be really healthy, I couldn't picture the eggplant cream as anything I would really like to taste. That until today.
It happens that I had to make some errands and these errands took me close to a commercial center where there's a Leroy restaurant. My boyfriend and I are planning on getting a printer, and after I've seen one that fit our requirements, I called him for us to meet at the commercial center, if possible (we were also fixing a few things around the house and the carpenter was up the flat with my boyfriend getting some of those things done). Well, it was possible, but he would take some time to get there, so I decided to wait for him at Leroy. I'm trying to control my expenses, but I'm also watching what I eat - particularly after picking up some weight with Mommy's cooking - so I was carefull about what I ordered. In the menu I saw eggplant cream with toasted pita chips. "Well, know or never", I thought, and though I have had tasted horrible things at the same place (like a foul poppyseed custard), I ordered the eggplant cream.
It was delicious. Just like with before with the chickpeas - which I never managed to like until I tasted hummus - the eggplant world opened before my eyes with a delighful, amazing universe of smooth taste and texture, and also quite similar to hummus. ^_^
With this experience I've got the chance to learn again, that things aren't always what they seem the first time, first impressions can be deceiving, and if we give things a second chance and have patience, we might be very gladly surprised. Sometimes that dress you thought looks so bad on you, turns out to be the one that flatters you the most, or maybe the old stool you couldn't wait to get rid of, with a bit of painting and a good scrubbing becomes an wonderful piece of your livingroom. And so is with people. The annoying kid might turn out to be a very bright, interesting person, if you give it the chance, the ugly girl can turn out to be far better than a runaway full of models, and the awkward guy with weird hair and scary laugher could end up being your best friend.
Though there are a lot of eggplants and chickpeas among us - people you need to give a second chance, allow yourself to know them better - sadly there are also a few rotten, poisonous mushrooms that no tenderness, no patience, to chance can call forward the brighter side. Thus yes, when you don't like someone, treat them first like the eggplant, but if it doesn't work, cast them out as a poisonous mushroom before they end up messing up your life.
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