Tag

eggplant

Browsing

by Danya Bilinsky

Nestled in the southwest corner of Adelaide’s Central Market in Adelaide, Australia is Lien Heng Asian Grocery. It is identified by piles of greenery – one dollar bunches of coriander, fresh mint and an array of leafy vegetables. Mustard greens, choy sum, bok choy and kang kung are heaped on stalls that overflow from the small store, which itself only covers nine square meters.

I delve further inside. Knobs of ginger are gnarled hands and strands of garlic shoots are restrained from running wild by blue tape. The enormous jackfruit is armored with a spiky exterior alongside the green papaya, halved, de-seeded and ready for grating into a spicy salad.

The aisles of the store contain an entire continent. The musty aroma of the shiitake mushroom carries me to China. A corner of spices conjures up the colorful saris and dusty streets of India. Titles of mysterious Japanese snacks are indecipherable, although tempting, considering the joy they seem to provide the grinning cartoon characters on their packets.

Other sections simply intrigue. Where is dried sea coconut from? How is the fox nut used? Would a dry lily bulb taste earthy or floral? The dried north almonds and the dried south almonds look suspiciously similar within their separate packages, so what would the explanation be for the one cent difference in price?

Types of tofu line seven rows of the small fridge, interspersed with balls made from beef and fish. Even the freezer section, never an area to provide much inspiration, makes the stomach rumble. Frozen dumplings neatly encase pork and prawn – crimped, curved and crescent varieties. Reams of paper thin Peking duck wrappers bring to mind the crunch of the bird’s skin they were made to hold.

However it is the simple purple eggplant that transports me.

I am in the north of Laos, in Luang Prabang. Despite having a traveling companion I have kept the morning to myself. I wake not long after the sun and cycle along the bumpy streets to the local market. Similar to the southwest corner of Adelaide Central Market the produce is piled high and taken from the ground not long before its sale.

One of the stalls is simply a blanket on the ground. A variety of eggplants covers the material. Smooth skinned orbs, the size of a golf ball, come in purple, green and porcelain white. They can be served raw, a refreshing crunch to douse the fire of a minced meat larb. The smallest eggplants are only the size of a pea and similarly green in color. Still clinging to the vine they provide a bitter burst in a curry. Longer, meatier eggplants are roasted, together with garlic, and puréed to form a dipping sauce to serve with sticky rice.

The stallholder notices my fascination, although our languages divide us. A passerby assists. ‘This is not even the beginning’ she translates from the toothless face. ‘Do you know how many different types there are?’

I admit I do not.

‘Sixteen’, she proudly declares. ‘There are sixteen types of eggplant.’

Danya Bilinsky has written for the Spectator food blog, Spectator Scoff, as well as Australian online publication Concrete Playground and blogged for Yahoo 7 lifestyle.  She has worked in Food TV and made food look beautiful for cookbooks.  She is currently studying Food Writing at The University of Adelaide.