Oishinbo - Vol. 31 Ch. 282 - Good Eggplant, Bad Eggplant

[MangaDex]

 

[Mugiwara325]

If you would allow me this opportunity to talk about my absolute favorite eggplant dish:

This is fish-fragrant eggplant (鱼香茄子, yú xiāng qié zǐ). A Sichuanese stir-fried eggplant dish in a starchy fish-fragrant sauce (not made of fish, just made for fish). Often cooked with pork mince.

This stuff goes so well with a hot bowl of white rice. In Chinese, we say dishes like these are xià fàn (下饭), which means they let you eat more rice (implied: super delicious with rice).

 

[77BLc9JwJGpLVARkamJx]

I have the same complaints with eggplants, the skin is harder to chew down to bits, so you get this long strips of skin, trying to swallow them choked me out several times, and that soggy spongy bite. I dont think I ever conciously pick a dish using eggplants if im buying them.

 

[thirtykei]

Surprised there's no tempura eggplant
In my country we have something similiar to the stir fried eggplant dish

 

[keatsta]

very classic Oishinbo chapter, love these ingredient investigations. I love an Italian sandwich with a thin slice of deep fried eggplant. Really elevates the whole experience.