Picture of the Day: Fresh Corn

Each kernel is bursting with natural sweetness

Summer means picking strawberries, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, and corn.

On the weekend a friend was going to Chilliwack to check out Greendale Acres, an experiential farm which is now celebrating corn season with a giant corn maze that has a different design each year.

What a bounty of corn!

Chilliwack is about an hour and a half drive east from Vancouver.

I asked my friend to bring back half a dozen corn for me, and she ignored my request and gave me 10 corn wrapped tightly in the green husks.

Not wasting any time, I promptly removed those husks off three corn on the cob and boiled them, and they were absolutely delicious. They had a sharp crunch when I bit into them and the kernels were so sweet. You don't need butter!

 

Taiwanese Frozen Meals in a Pinch

Braised beef, and chicken and corn noodles

I'm still on the hunt for delicious Taiwanese braised beef noodle that can easily be heated up from frozen.

The standard I'm measuring it against is The Regent Taipei's version that I used to eat in Hong Kong.

The frozen packages from the box

In Vancouver I recently tried the version from A.Bento, a Taiwanese eatery on Broadway, which also offers some frozen dishes to make at home, including braised beef noodle.

Each box comes with two packs, one with the braised beef in the sauce with some bok choy, and the other is the dried noodles.

You take the beef out of the packaging and it's a giant solid mass that melts and heats up relatively quickly in a pot, while in another boil some water and then put the noodles in.

The two come together in under 15 minutes, and tastes straight forward. The beef is very tender, but perhaps the spicy braised beef noodle version would be tastier.

I also tried the frozen chicken with corn and noodles, with the same preparation. However, here the serving is one whole chicken drumstick which takes longer to heat up, but nevertheless is pretty tasty and substantial, garnished with corn kernels. 

The noodles in both are wide and a little thick, and has a kind of homemade texture to them. The soups of both are savoury and comforting.

Picture of the Day: Sweet Corn

Sweet and juicy corn is in season now from British Columbia

Summer means fresh strawberries, blueberries, cherries, plums...

And zucchinis, cucumbers, tomatoes and corn!

British Columbia produces 5.9 million kilograms of corn annually, and it's grown in the Okanagan Valley, the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

We bought these and boiled them. So sweet and juicy!