Eggplant Burger with French Fries

We're at the beach! We love visiting a quiet beach area near Wilmington, NC called ... well, a friend who turned us on to this place discouraged me from telling too many other people so that we can keep it quiet and clean here - even this Labor Day weekend, we could swim and only see maybe three others nearby in the relatively clean and quite warm water! Let me simply say that we are renting a lovely 3-bedroom (all that was left with an oceanfront view) condominium a very short two-minute or so walk from the ocean.

The rental includes a fully furnished kitchen. We were surprised when we first came last year that the restaurants nearby are not vegetarian friendly; even the Thai restaurant nearby had fish sauce in most everything. But home cooking is an option! If possible and convenient, I prefer to use my own pans and cooking utensils, so brought a single aluminum stock/sauce pan, though I didn't need the pan today.

We got to the beach in time for enjoying an hour and a half or so of a dip before dark. After showering, I got to work in the kitchen and made a simple meal. We picked up from a coop in Wilmington, NC, a nice product, Dominex eggplant burgers. I've enjoyed their eggplant cutlets before, but haven't seen these burgers before. I simply heated them, as well as some organic french fries, in the oven. We also picked up some good organic and vegan buns (finding a vegan bun is not always easy; often dairy or honey is included).

The burger was very good! We have two left; perhaps I'll use the grill back home next week and grill these plus other items. We do have the rest of the 8-pack of buns to use, too.

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By the way, Claire Cusick, the food columnist for our weekly entertainment paper, The Independent, had emailed me that she was going to feature this food blog in this week's issue. Indeed, I brought the paper with me and found a nice writeup, which I'll reproduce here!

In response to my query a few weeks ago about area food blogs, Dilip Barman alerted me to Dinner with Dilip (dilipdinner.blogspot.com). Barman, who is the president of the Triangle Vegetarian Society (www.trianglevegsociety.org), chronicles his daily dinner-making adventures. Since meeting his wife in June 2004, he has cooked for her almost every night, he says, and has yet to repeat a dinner.