I read often about how people struggle with eggplant. Well, some struggle with eating them - I've found them to be an acquired taste (which I've certainly acquired!), probably because most people's first experience with them is from bitter, overripe or improperly cooked specimens.
Home-grown, freshly picked eggplant is a wonder. We marinate and grill them, turn them into one of the great alchemy experiments of summer (ratatouille), roast them to make Baba Ganouj, slice and dip and bread and bake them to provide the starting point for healthy Eggplant Parmesan, just to name a few of our favorite uses.
I used to fail quite miserably with eggplant...when I planted them into the main garden. Since transitioning to container growing, they rank as far easier to grow well than tomatoes, and on a par with peppers. There is one big early season issue - flea beetles. If you are diligent and pick them off and crush, them, or do as I do just after planting - make up some very dilute Sevin spray (very dilute - only 20% or so of recommended strength) and spray them for just a few weeks, as they become established, they thrive. I've found it is all about letting them get off to a good start; after that I put away the Sevin (I don't like spraying anything on anything, really). Note that I never spray anything on plants that we sell, which is way our eggplant seedlings are often riddled with small holes during our seedling sale time.
So, a few weeks after planting, see what our eggplants are already doing! Those few that are already blossoming will provide us with our first harvest in just a few weeks.