[Bodhi Peace]

I don't have experience with white parts on eggplant, but it is obviously not "normal". It will be interesting for you to test whether that part is ripe or not. Someone else may know here... I don't think exposing the white part to sun now will help.

Do you have any idea of the variety of eggplant? If it wasn't labeled, maybe it is one of the "Classic/Regular" varieties - fat and glossy purple/black.

The next two could be skinny because they are growing at the same time whereas the first one grew by itself? Maybe the first one was just unusually fat.

When you had the dish in the Philippines, was it from a restaurant? A brief search showed that there is a "Filipino Eggplant" which is one of the Asian varieties, like the Chinese one you bought in Atlanta. So I would think that is closer just as close in flavor than to the classic Japanese variety you are growing.

Eggplant, in my opinion, doesn't have a lot of flavor on its own so maybe you missed a spice or (more likely) you didn't properly char/smoke it on the grill. If your wife made both dishes of Tortang Talong identically except for the eggplant, well then...