Continueing on the Chilli note...the story is Chillies travelled from India into turkey and Hungary and bcame famous as Paprika....
I had a couple of interesting encounters with Chilli in odd places
I was in surgical meeting in Spain and the Spaniards are probably second only to Indians in terms of conference dinners or maybe better as they serve wine as well !!!
It was me and my uncle from Madras and a couple of colleagues presenting our work in the meeting when a gentle asked if he could join is...we aid yes and he was Turkish surgeon..aftr exchanging pleasantaies he took a bottle out of his bag...freshly ground red chillies and he sprinled on his food and offered it to us as he put it...'you'll appreciate its worth not these locals'...it was hot and spicy and great....next thinghe asked was Do you know RajKapoor..we said yes and he goes oH I am a great fan and sang Awara Hoon for us appararntly RK had a great fan following in turkey...
I was in budapest lat year for the same surgical conference and was ashtonished to see redchilly everywhere in the duty free like we hang sandle wood...in our airports nad the Hungarians again love red chillies...
interestingly both these encounteres were in the ISDE world congress thats Internationla Society for study of Oesophagaeal Diseases and Chilli is one of the major offenders of Oesophagus the Gullet!! Sri
Intro to eggplant in wiki "The eggplant, aubergine, or brinjal (Solanum melongena) is a plant of the family Solanaceae (also known as the nightshades) and genus Solanum. It bears a fruit of the same name, commonly used as a vegetable in cooking. As a night-shade, it is closely related to the tomato and potato and is native to India and Sri Lanka."