The flowers of an eggplant, like the wisdom of a parent, will never mislead you.
— Japanese proverb
Soon the markets will be filled with two of the most versatile and delicious fruits of the summer: the tomato and the eggplant. With innumerable recipes, these staples can be found in virtually every cuisine on the planet. While in the same family of plants, the tomato is New World and the eggplant is of the Old.
Belonging to the nightshade family — that includes tomatoes, potatoes, chilies and tobacco — the eggplant originated on the Indian subcontinent. By the fifth century it had spread to China, and it made its way to Japan by the seventh or eighth century at the latest. In contrast, the eggplant was unknown in Europe until the 1200s when it was imported from Arabia, where it had been eaten for at least 600 years. From the Middle East and North Africa the eggplant spread across Africa as well. Only after Columbus crossed to the Americas in 1492 did the eggplant finally come to be cultivated worldwide.