Black corn on the cob

Whilst in Penang recently, I was intrigued to find some vacuum-packed corn on the cob, which was black.  I’d never seen such a thing before.  Piqued by this curiosity, obviously I just had to buy it.  You can see the photo of it here on the right.  I tried searching on the Internet to find out more about it but didn’t have much luck.  Even Wikipedia doesn’t seem to mention it on their page about corn on the cob.

I did, however, manage to find a photo of a market stall in Peru with similar black corn cobs.   Now why would such a thing be found in a Penang supermarket?  It beats me.  If anyone has any information about black corn on the cob, please post a comment.  Thanks. Meanwhile I’m just going to cook it in the normal way and perhaps serve it with a savoury butter.   I’ll let you know how it turns  out.

Later… Well, it wasn’t really a true black at all – more of a very, very dark aubergine colour.  And it wasn’t very nice.  We’re used to sweetcorn, and guess what?  It’s sweet.  This black stuff wasn’t sweet at all.  It was rather bland, tough, and very fibrous.  I wouldn’t buy it again.  But it’ll probably turn out that it has a specific purpose which it’s good for.  Until or unless I find out more, I’ll give it a miss.