I found these really cute looking eggplant at Sheng Siong the other day. Curious about how they might taste, I brought them home. 红烧茄子 has always been a very safe dish to order whenever I visited China. It almost never tasted bad anywhere from Yunnan to Xinjiang. I thought that this might be a difficult dish to prepare, but as it turned out, it’s not that challenging after all.

Just saute eggplant with dried shrimp, minced garlic and shallots first. Make sure there’s enough oil to soak into the eggplant. Then just dump everything into the claypot, add some seasoning and simmer. No skill required at all.

Another good dish to learn. Those who don’t have good teeth will appreciate it. Make good use of your kitchen and stop queuing at food centres or zer cha stalls. You wouldn’t want to do that when Singapore’s population hits 6.9 million.