Nasu Eggplant

Japan boasts a huge variety of nasu eggplants. The Kyoyasai (Kyoto specialty vegetable) Kamo nasu is roundish, with firm flesh, great cooked as dengaku, that is to say,topped with miso paste. They are still cultivated today, as they have been for centuries, in the Kamigamo area in the North of Kyoto City. The kuro-nasu is egg-shaped, and West Japan and Tohoku claim naga-nasu an elongated variety. Bei-nasu the ‘American eggplant’ is an imported strain, the ‘Black Beauty’. Japanese eggplants do not need to be salted prior to cooking. You can tell an eggplant is fresh by the lush purple colour of its skin. They are available all year round, but summer and the autumn harvested eggplants are considered best.