Corn…

In my childhood days, my mum would clear the land at the far end of the compound where our old wooden house was to plant corn. She would soak the kernels in water till they had sprouted roots and make holes in the ground into which I would put in two or three of the seeds. The variety of the corn then was not very nice – the young ones were all right but the older ones were not that tasty and quite a chore to chew.

These days, we have the sweet corn or what people call the Ligo variety…

…but the prices have been soaring lately and they do not come cheap anymore, 4 for RM6.00, RM1.50 each.

When I shared a photograph of the corn on Facebook, a friend commented that he would buy them regularly but at times, they were sweet and at other times, not so. I replied telling him to look at the stems where they had cut the ears of corn…

If it is white and fresh, then the corn would be fine. It it has turned brown and dry, then one should not buy it as chances are it will not be sweet and nice anymore, rather bland, in fact. The ones that I bought that day looked like they had been harvested the day before, not 100% fresh but they were still all right.

For this reason, I often wonder about those that they sell already peeled – have they done that so buyers would not be able to check as to whether the corn is fresh or not? It’s the same thing with those sold in pairs wrapped in plastic or cling film at the supermarket. How old exactly are those? Will they be as sweet as the freshly-harvested ones still?

Cooking is very easy – you just peel the ears of corn till you reach the final layer…

Some say it will taste nicer if you leave that intact when you cook it compared to removing it all completely.

Just boil the peeled corn in water with a little bit of salt added…

…and you will be able to enjoy eating them…

…in no time at all. It is so very easy.

Of course, there are other ways to do it – steam them or grill them on a hot plate, barbecue them and serve with butter (though usually, they will just use margarine and I am not fond of the taste and smell) or cook in soup like the ABC soup, for instance.