I really dont like eggplant that much because of the smell- my mom once made an eggplant dish that smelled exactly the dogfood called Gainsburgers- I dont know if anyone remembers those but my dog ate it all the time- and it grossed me out on eggplant for good- I cant remember what the taste was, but the smell made it taste like dogfood for me. But then, I love eggplant parmisan because to me it looks and tastes like veal parmisan. Depends on how you cook it really. Sometimes you can marinate it and make it taste like meat, then others it tastes like dogfood.