Photo/Illutration Eggplant-miso bento with cheese (Chikako Tada)

I attended the Paris Olympics this summer as part of my company’s sports media coverage.

Of course, I also focused on my domain, food.

The 2024 Paris Olympics were the first Games to ban disposable plastic. No plastic bottles, only returnable cups, were allowed.

In 2022, Eau de Paris began working with restaurants to launch the "Ici je choisis l’eau de Paris" (I choose the water of Paris) campaign, offering people free tap water to refill their bottles at more than a thousand establishments.

Paris also has 1,200 drinking fountains on its streets and parks.

More than a hundred historic Wallace fountains—beautifully artistic as well as functional—have been dispensing free water to Parisians since 150 years ago, when they were first given to the city from Englishman Sir Richard Wallace. Paris even has 17 fountains that provide sparkling water!

This news made me feel that the times have finally caught up with me.

During my culinary studies there in the 2000s, I often ate in bistros. I usually asked for free water from a jug or the tap, not just to save the Earth but to save money because I was a poor student. But in this July, I proudly asked for city water!

Here is a story from Paris about eggplant, a summer vegetable. On Sundays, I used to eat a falafel sandwich with fried eggplant on the Rue des Rosiers.

These are pita bread filled with freshly made falafel (chickpea croquettes) and shredded vegetables. The fried eggplant and white sesame sauce went well with the sandwich.

Twenty years ago, a very filling falafel sandwich would cost about 4 to 5 euros, but now all that will buy me is a Coke. Still, I would like to eat a falafel again.

Eggplant Miso au Gratin is simply a hollowed out eggplant stuffed with meat and then grilled. The skin is the “edible container.” Let’s reduce food waste!

Ingredients for 2 servings


1 eggplant / 1/2 tsp salt / 200 grams sliced or ground pork / 1 tbsp vegetable oil / 2 tbsp miso paste / 2 tbsp sugar / 2 tbsp sake / 4 tbsp shredded cheese

Directions


1. Cut the eggplant in half. Slice the flesh inside each half into cubes with a knife and scoop out the cubes, leaving about 1 cm from the edge. Keep the skin.
2. Sprinkle the cubes with salt and leave to stand for about 5 minutes. Blot with a paper towel to remove excess water.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the eggplant cubes and stir fry.
4. When the oil has coated all the eggplant, add the pork. Cook through until the pork changes color.
5. Add the sake, sugar and miso. Stir well.
6. Fill each hollowed eggplant skin with half of the mixture. Top with half the cheese.
7. Grill in a toaster oven for 10 minutes until the cheese is melted.

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Scan this QR code with your smartphone to view the recipe video in English.
https://www.youtube.com/c/PenandSpoon

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This article originally appeared in the July 7, 2024, issue of Asahi Weekly.

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Chikako Tada

Chikako Tada: The author of seven cookbooks, Tada is a Japanese food journalist and editor of Pen & Spoon, a website devoted to food (https://pen-and-spoon.com/). She worked as a newspaper reporter for 12 years before going freelance. She spent two years studying baking in Paris and began making bento around 2016 during her seven-year stay in India. She returned to Japan in 2020 and lives in Fukuoka.

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