Corn on the cob

It’s amazing how your tastes change as you get older and whether it is clothes, hairstyles or clothing what you liked as a youngster is not the same as you like as you age. This is particularly so with food.

I remember as a youngster being forced to try everything at least once – in hindsight I am grateful to my parents making me do this as it instilled a sense of adventure that stayed with me as I grew older and came in useful when I travelled to Africa and Asia where some of he foods were COMPLETELY different and a little weird at times.

What I do remember from way back when was absolutely hating corn on the cob, maize to those that call it that.

A monthly ritual was on a Saturday night to have 2 each of these parboiled so that they were still firm and then covering them with copious quantities of butter and black pepper. The butter was first put on thick on to fresh bread and then wrapped around the cob so that the butter melted, some going on the cob and the rest soaking into the bread. Black pepper was ground over the cob and then eaten.

I remember watching my parents and sister gnawing their way through their cobs from end to end rotating as they finished that particular row of corn in the same way you would wind up the paper in the typewriter when you reached the end of the line.

There is a great Disney sketch with Mickey Mouse and Goofy that mimics this and is so true to life as to be unbelievable

Such was my dislike of this horrid vegetable that I would not even have it processed in cans….

I do not know when I changed my mind but now it is almost a staple part of my diet and a health snack if I am out and about as it is readily available from the man street vendors, both parboiled and bar b que.

What is also strange is that it is also the most popular snack to have at the cinema although not in this form. I am of course referring to Popcorn which is simply dried kernels of corn heated until such time as they explode or “pop”

I cannot imagine anyone not liking popcorn, especially in its sweeter variations so why not like popcorn….

The only thing that worries me about the changes in my dislikes to likes for foodstuffs is that maybe I will go the opposite as I get older and start to dislike things I liked as a youngster – I pray it will never happen to steaks and cream cakes…..

Off to the market to get some corn – happy nibbling