Eggplant Soup

Eggplant came to the American South from Africa, Africa in turn having received it from the Orient through the Portuguese trade. Its place in traditional southern cooking reflects its journey. In the piedmont and mountain regions of the South, settled by farmers mainly of Scotch, Irish, and German backgrounds, who were not major slaveholders, eggplant was rarely seen. In and around Charleston and New Orleans—cities with large black populations—eggplant became established in the local cuisin