damasareta

Usually I buy "brand name" veggies...corn, potatoes from Hokkaido, red bell peppers from Kochi prefecture, onions from Awaji Island, fuji apples from Aomori.

I usually stay clear of onions from Hyogo (too much bite) and soy beans from Osaka (no flavor).

So, when I saw these corn from Nagano prefecture, I was kinda leery.

The corn was only 78 yen (about US$.78) an ear, thinking I could steam it and halve it between Satoshi, I bought one for dinner...wrong.

The nice side was the side exposed...but after peeling it...my fears were confirmed...I was damasareta (fooled/tricked/psyched).

I looked at the unexposed side and saw this...a whole section all dried up! (from the tip to almost half way of the ear!)

To take it back to the store would have been the right thing to do, but to go back out into the heat and humidity was a pain.

So, I ad-libbed on one of my favorite summer recipes...this one.

I added eggplant, okra, and some tofu in place of the green beans and minced pork. I also excluded the garlic since I was too lazy to defrost some.

Had I known about the corn earlier, instead of finding out just before cooking, I would have had some time to drain the tofu of its water.

So, the dish came out a little more soupy than usual, but it was still spicy and still tasted great over rice.

Will I buy corn from Nagano prefecture again? Probably not.