"How about eggplant? Thinking that is related to tomato and hot peppers or peppers. Not that anybody actually likes eggplant." My mom planted jalapenos and egg plant in the same row, every other plant, the egg plants came out hot...no kidding. (I didn't know that egg plants and peppers were related)
An eggplant with some heat might be edible.
Sounds like sneaky roots syndrome.