Answer for question 4581.

[sabotabby]

[Error: unknown template qotd]The funniest one is eggplant.

So when I was a kid, I had this teacher who would bring in unusual (for our whitebread town, anyway) foods and not tell us what it was until we'd all eaten some. Nowadays you couldn't do that, of course, but it was kind of a cool mind-broadening exercise. That's why I've eaten escargot, and the only reason I've eaten escargot.

Anyway, one time she brought in octopus, and I was just horrified by the texture. For whatever reason, I developed this notion that cooked eggplant would have the same texture as octopus, and I refused to eat it as a result. This continued well after I became vegetarian, even though eggplant is pretty much a lifesaving ingredient if you're vegetarian.

Eventually, I guess I was hungry and it was the only option, and to my surprise and delight, it tasted nothing like octopus and had a very different texture, and it's now my favourite vegetable.

For the inverse, see my post about attempting to cook sweet and sour meatballs using my family's old recipe.

Comments

[rinue.livejournal.com]

I enjoy both eggplant and octopus, and agree that:

(a) they seem like they're going to be texturally similar
(b) yet they aren't at all.

I'm 35 years old and this shouldn't continue to surprise me. I also should be better at cooking eggplant by now. Mine typically comes out rubbery, although not octopus rubbery. (I suspect the cooking isn't the problem; I suspect I'm bad at knowing which eggplants to pick at the grocery, which is the same thing that stops me buying pineapple.)

[sabotabby]

If you add salt for an hour before cooking it will be less rubbery and bitter. I never bother with this, but I'm told it helps.

Also glad to know I'm not insane.