It is made from cucumbers, bean sprouts, cabbage, legumes, Thai basil, and small green eggplant, covered in peanut sauce dressing.

Even hotter and just as good is jungle curry with tender chunks of chicken, made with small Asian eggplants.

Those most frequently used include daikon radish, white turnip, Chinese cabbage, small eggplants and the slender, slightly bulbous onions that are transformed into a pickle called rakkyo.

The shiba-zuke made by the Doi company uses small Japanese eggplants, cucumbers, Japanese ginger and red shiso leaves.

Their daily outdoor markets are filled with dazzling displays of small pale purple eggplants, tiny fiery green chilies, tomatoes, and green papayas and mangoes that are treated like vegetables.

White and small eggplant tend to have firmer, creamier flesh and are less bitter than the large purple ones.

The smaller eggplants are attractive when stuffed or halved; they can be eaten hot or at room temperature.

Ms. Grimley also suggested using bear grass or wheat, apples, pears, small eggplants, white squash or "mushrooms on toothpicks."

In other words, it pays to find small eggplants, and at this time of year that should be a pretty easy task.

I loved baghare baigan ($10.95), small eggplants in an aromatic sauce of ground peanuts, sesame, tamarind and coconut from the central Indian state of Hyderabad.