Eggplant Caviar, Part 3
The rat is plastered, belly side out, flat against the clear window of TV console. It looks for all the world like a spatchcocked bird ready for the oven - except that it’s furry, dried, and well, a rat.
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Solanum melongena, known around the world by many common names (e.g. eggplant, melanzana, aubergine, nasu, qiézi), is a meaty, versatile fruit which is eaten as a vegetable.
Varieties of this species range in color (nearly black, dark to pale purple, white and even striped) and shape (long tubes, hockey-stick-shaped, the pear-shaped, and round). Eggplant grows wild as a perennial in India and perhaps also in Egypt.
This wily fruit wisely fends off predators with two bitter compounds; anthocyanin and solanine. No sensible human, insect or rodent eats eggplant without removing these unsavory molecules by 1) soaking in acidulated water or 2) ‘sweating’ with salt or salted water; or 3) roasting then scooping out the soft flesh from the skin. It’s a great self preservation strategy for the plant. Eggplant can be dried and pickled and stands up well to most modes of cooking including steaming, stewing, baking, grilling, roasting, sautéeing and frying. China grows 92% of the world’s crop and the Chinese wisely consume 62% of what they grow.
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“What, what?!” says my hubbie, still slightly panicked about the state of the laundry room and what he might have done wrong. I point wordlessly to the front of the TV console where there is a dried out rat, belly facing out, legs splayed to the four corners of the window of the console door for all the world to see.
“What is THAT?!” he says now, sitting more upright with a visible alarm. The cats have trotted into the entertainment area to follow the action after realizing that the laundry room is no longer the Panic Room. So. Boring. So. Yesterday.
“Yup, she found it.” says Chaos to Rascal.
“Proud of her. Only took 15’, tops”, says Rascal glancing back.
“Uh huh. Not bad.” says Chaos licking his right paw.
I open the door and maggots, hundreds of fat, white maggots, splatter across the brand spanky-new raspberry colored carpet. I close the door and gag. The maggots wriggle and writhe in an ever widening, organic pattern.
“F*@k” says my unusually gentile husband.
“Ditto” says the more foul mouth I.
“You gonna take care of this?! They’re your cats.”
“Gotta barf first. Want any dinner right now?”
“Kidding me, right?”
“Hey! How about some help here?!” I whine as he steps towards the stairs.
“They’re your cats” he says pointedly as he continues walking.
And so the cats, and my long-suffering husband, depart for different reasons (boredom, disgust, resignation or a mix of the above) for other pursuits.
I vacuum maggots out of the carpet and pry the dried rat off the inside of the window of the TV console. I remove rat solid leavings etc. (the etc. bit is deleted because it’s even a mite too graphic for me) out of the cabinet, disinfect the console door and cabinet, wash the TV remotes and the cables. I sit back on my haunches, drop my shoulders to relax and, as I roll my head to stretch my neck, I look down. More maggots are crawling up and out of the fibers of the brand spanky-new raspberry colored carpet as they have burrowed in towards the floor boards while I was otherwise occupied. Yikes.
Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.
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It’s later and we’ve opted for comfort food after the demo of the fly-maggot-fly insect life cycle that unfortunately took place inside our TV console.
“How about an eggplant dish?” Always clears the air and feels like home” he says.
“Perfect.
“I’m looking forward to talking to Leonard & Susie this weekend.”
“Me too.” I say, washing my hands for the fifth time.
“Remind me to ask for their Eggplant Caviar recipe. None of the recipes I can find look like theirs. I can’t remember if it had lemon or garlic in it. It’s a family recipe I guess, maybe from Aga.” Aga, meaning grandmother in Russian, was Leonard’s mother who introduced us to Pascka made with apricots and almonds that is traditionally served at Easter.
“Why wait? Why don’t we call them now?”
“Deal” he says, picking up the phone.
These are: The Stories Plants Tell About Their People
~ Fin ~
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Blog content: PlantShare LLC copyright 2023 - present. All Rights Reserved.
Cover image by: thetimchannel is licensed under CC BY 2.0. 2009. "Banksy Toxic Rat". Source: Flickr
Images in this article by: Grimble C., age 7, 1923, “Rat in the Console”.
