It derives from the Chinese culinary descriptive "kuai", referring to dishes with a perfect balance of the fi ve essential flavors in Chinese cooking – Sweet, Salty, Savory, Spicy and Tart. I find it to be versatile and fresh, lending itself particularly well to meats (especially pork). Eat it on a cracker, with a roast or with your eggs... you just may find its strangeness becoming more and more familiar. The thing to remember about eggplant is that, like the rest of us it can suffer from the challenges of its breeding. Like its cousin the potato, an Eggplant produces toxins that can be quite bitter.

Always choose smooth, unblemished eggplant, and when possible use younger eggplant as the toxin builds up in the fruit as it grows. In dishes where the eggplant is to be peeled and cut, try salting the pieces well, letting them rest for an hour or so then rinsing under cold running water. The salt will draw the toxins from the eggplant leaving only goodness and niceness in its wake.