I’m a fool for fried eggplant. Raspy and crispy on the outside, creamy and sweet on the inside. But that was not always the case. For the longest time, I thought eggplant parmigiana—the soggy, cheese-smothered stuff of the Chef Boyardee school—was the apogee of the form. I did not cotton to the apogee.
Two tastes changed my mind. First came the Dinner Bell, a restaurant in McComb, Mississippi, where Sunday lunches are served at revolving tables, which, by the way, look and function like big ol’ Lazy Susans. The Dinner Bell serves shingle-thin rounds, salted well and fried hard. What’s not to love? Better still, though, are the slender strips of eggplant served at Galatoire’s, on Bourbon Street, in New Orleans. They batter with milk, egg, and flour, then fry. But the genius touch comes on the side: a saucer of powdered sugar. Stir a spot of Tabasco in and dip the eggplant for a blast of sweet, hot, and slightly sour. Recently, I’ve noticed a few chefs riffing on Galatoire’s, including Kevin Rathbun of Rathbun’s, in Atlanta, who serves his eggplant with a premixed slurry of powdered sugar and hot stuff. He calls his dish Yaya’s Eggplant Steak Fries, and they are, of course, a far cry from Boyardee days.
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