Don’t know what to make of the incredible variety of eggplant shapes, sizes and colors you’re finding at the market? You’re not alone. In fact, scientists aren't even sure of the exact number.
From its ancestral home in Burma (Myanmar today), eggplant has migrated to become a staple in India, China, Southeast Asia and much of Africa and the Mediterranean. And as is so often the case after centuries of small-scale subsistence cultivation, there is a rainbow of poorly defined varieties, one shading into the other.
Several years ago, I went on a farmers market hunting expedition at the peak of eggplant season.