Не то чтобы я любил баклажан, но с чесноком он вкуснее.

Не то чтобы is a very common Russian way to soften what you are about to say. It means something like:

• It’s not that...
• Not exactly that...
• I wouldn’t really say that...

So Не то чтобы я любил баклажан, но... means the speaker is being nuanced: they are not saying I love eggplant, but they are also not rejecting it completely.

It often sets up a contrast with но:

• Не то чтобы X, но Y
• It’s not exactly X, but Y

That pattern is very natural in Russian.

Not necessarily.

In this kind of sentence, Russian often uses a past-tense verb after не то чтобы to sound less direct, less categorical, or more hypothetical. So я любил here does not have to mean a real past-time action like I used to love.

In natural English, this sentence is closer to:

• It’s not that I love eggplant, but it’s better with garlic.
• Not that I’m a big fan of eggplant, but it tastes better with garlic.

So the past form любил is part of the idiomatic softening effect. This is something English speakers often notice because it does not match English tense usage exactly.

The singular баклажан can be used in a generic sense, meaning eggplant as a food or type of vegetable in general.

That is similar to English:

• I don’t like eggplant rather than
• I don’t like eggplants

Both singular and plural can be possible in Russian depending on style and meaning, but the singular here sounds like talking about the ingredient/category in general.

So я любил баклажан is roughly I liked eggplant as a food.

It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of любил.

The verb любить takes a direct object:

• любить что? = to love/like what?

So:

• я любил баклажан

However, because баклажан is:

• masculine
• singular
• inanimate

its accusative form is the same as its nominative form.

So:

• nominative: баклажан
• accusative: баклажан

If it were an animate masculine noun, the form would change. For example:

• я любил брата

Because the preposition с meaning with takes the instrumental case.

So:

• nominative: чеснок
• instrumental: чесноком

That gives:

• с чесноком = with garlic

In this sentence, it means the eggplant tastes better when prepared with garlic or together with garlic, not just physically next to garlic.

Russian pronouns follow grammatical gender.

The noun баклажан is masculine, so when you refer back to it, you use:

• он = masculine singular

Even for objects and foods, Russian uses он / она / оно depending on the noun’s gender.

So:

• баклажан → он

In English, we would normally say it, but Russian requires the gendered pronoun.

Вкуснее is the comparative form of вкусный:

• вкусный = tasty
• вкуснее = tastier / more tasty

So он вкуснее means:

• it is tastier
• it tastes better

In this sentence, the comparison is understood from context. The idea is:

• With garlic, it tastes better than without garlic or
• With garlic, it’s better

Russian often leaves the second half of the comparison unstated if it is obvious.

Because Russian normally omits the verb to be in the present tense.

So where English says:

• It is tastier

Russian simply says:

• Он вкуснее

This is completely normal.

Compare:

• Он вкусный. = It is tasty.
• Он вкуснее. = It is tastier.

But in the past or future, Russian does use forms of to be:

• Он был вкуснее. = It was tastier.
• Он будет вкуснее. = It will be tastier.

No. A comparative in Russian does not always need an explicit than phrase.

Here, он вкуснее works by itself because the comparison is obvious from context:

• tastier with garlic than without it

If you wanted to say the comparison explicitly, you could use чем:

• С чесноком он вкуснее, чем без чеснока.

But in everyday Russian, leaving that unstated is very common.

Yes, depending on context.

The verb любить can mean:

• to love
• to like
• to be fond of

When talking about foods, English often translates it more naturally as like or be fond of, not necessarily strong emotional love.

So я любил баклажан here is best understood as something like:

• I liked eggplant
• I was fond of eggplant
• I’m not exactly an eggplant fan

In this sentence, the exact English wording depends on how natural you want it to sound.