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Food Thread: It's A Fruit! Really! Just Don't Call It "Aubergine!"

Eggplant? Why the hell is he talking about eggplant?

Well, my local market had a bunch of them that looked pretty damned good, and my first thought was, "Baba Ganoush," because my Eggplant Parmesan skills are mediocre at best. I didn't have an Italian grandmother to teach me how to make it correctly, but Baba Ganoush is another thing entirely, and it's simple stuff really. In fact it is pretty much hummus with the chick peas swapped out for eggplant. But how to prepare the eggplant? I have made this dish dozens of times, and I think the best way by far is to roast it on a charcoal or gas grill until it looks almost burned. Charred is good. Really charred is gooderer!

Then just scrape out the meat from the charred skin, trying to leave the seeds behind, which I think make the eggplant a bit bitter. Unfortunately it is sort of difficult, and I haven't figured out an easy way to separate the seeds, so I don't worry about it.

Garlic, lemon juice (more than you might think), salt and pepper, an ounce or so of olive oil, and as much cayenne as floats your boat. Then blend it, and add tahini to taste. Yeah...this is not really a recipe...it's more like advice.

But it's easy to make, and that roasted flavor from the grill really compliments the eggplant and the tahini.

Dildo says: "Check it out!"

[Supposedly the round-dimpled eggplants are meatier and have fewer seeds than the ova-dimpled ones. I go for the round ones, but I haven't done any comparisons, so it might be an old wives tale.]

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I am off on holiday, so head below the fold for some crappy pictures and snarky comments about what I have been eating and drinking...and drinking.

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Beer is a glorious thing, and while some beer is intended to quench one's thirst on a hot day, some beer is intended for a more contemplative experience.

Wow. That sounds pompous...and it IS! I hate that beer drinking has gone the way of wine drinking. Just treat them both as drinks. Nothing more.

Beer tastes good. In fact, most beer tastes at least okay, except for Bud Light, which is swill. Some beer is grand, like my favorites, the "Real Ales" of England. A "Real Ale" is made with traditional ingredients and undergoes secondary fermentation in the cask. It also has the benefit of relatively low alcohol content and not much carbonation (no artificial carbonation is allowed), so it is entirely possible to drink several pints of it with dinner and not be a belching, stumbling drunk, which is what would happen if you drank the equivalent volume of an American IPA.

The UK even has an organization dedicated to drinking the stuff! Campaign for Real Ale: CAMRA has a spectacular mission statement:

Our vision is to have quality real ale, cider and perry and thriving pubs in every community. Our mission is to promote and advocate:

• the production, availability and consumption of quality real ale, cider and perry

• pubs and clubs as social centres and part of the UK’s cultural heritage

• the benefits of responsible social drinking

That is all kinds of awesome.

But why am I waxing poetic about beer? Because I just spent a week drinking as much Real Ale as I could pour down my gullet!

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Just send me oysters. Lots of oysters, and I will provide special dispensation for those without taste who insist upon maple syrup with their French Toast. And pork rib roasts from the front end of the pig where all the good and fatty meat lives, carrots that don't taste like stalky chalk, spare bottles of Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 Year Old Bourbon, an herb garden that actually produces herbs (but no basil!), well-marbled NY strip steaks and elk backstrap to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

And don't think that the rest of you are off the hook with maple syrup and French Toast: I'm still watching you! And I am watching you perverts who shake Manhattans and keeping a list for the Burning Times.