EGG PLANT. 179 



bitter, and then fry them in oil or butter; 

 they are also sliced and pickled for a few 

 hours, and then boiled green, or served in the 

 same manner as mashed turnips ; either way," 

 says Lunan, " they are an agreeable food, and 

 accounted to be aphrodisiac, and to cure 

 sterility : when boiled with wine and pepper, 

 they taste like artichokes." A lady who has 

 many years resided in Jamaica, favoured the 

 author with the following receipt for dress- 

 ing vegetable eggs : — The inside, after being 

 scooped out, to be fried either in oil or but- 

 ter, and the outside to be boiled whole, and 

 when drained, to be filled with the fried 

 parts, and sent to table apparently whole, 

 as a dish of eggs. She informed him, that 

 when dressed in the common way, they 

 should be cut into slices, and soaked in salt 

 and water for a few hours, to extract the 

 bitter taste. 



The French make great use of the purple 

 variety of this egg-shaped fruit, which they 

 call Aubergine, and which is as common as 

 the love-apple in the vegetable markets of 

 Paris. Their favourite method of dressing 

 them, is by taking out the seeds with a scoop, 

 filling the cavity with sweet herbs, and then 

 frying them whole. 





