🍱 Koneri

"Koneri" is a dish in which summer vegetables such as eggplant and bitter melon are stir-fried in oil, then seasoned with miso dissolved in dashi broth, and thickened with flour dissolved in water. It is an efficient way to get nutrients, because the wheat seals in the moisture containing nutrients from the vegetables. It is easy to eat even in the summer when appetites tend to decrease, so it is frequently made at home. It is said that the name "Koneri" comes from the fact that it is thickened ("neru") with flour. In the Kunisaki Peninsula, "Koneri" made from eggplant and bitter melon is referred to as "Holland," but the reason is unknown. It is also called "Kokake," "Ankake," and "Babakoroshi." In Bungo Ono City, with its undulating topography and rivers of various sizes, boasts one of the best dry-field farming areas in the prefecture, with an abundant eggplant cultivation. The eggplants produced in this region have a beautiful appearance, and they are trademarked under the name "Bi-nasu" (beautiful eggplant). There is a theory that the farmers started eating "Koneri" as a way to to deal with the large quantity of harvested eggplant and bitter melon.