Wow, you brought back memories from my childhood, growing up in “rural” Hackensack, New Jersey. Just kidding. My paternal grandparents used to grow tomatoes in their home gardens. My maternal grandparents used to grow corn in their backyard. Both sets of grandparents came from the South and moved up to Hackensack, New Jersey where they raised their families. I would call it even between the two summer staple vegetables of my childhood. I appreciate a freshly grown dark red beefsteak tomato sliced and served with tuna on a crusty bread with olive oil and a good mayo. I enjoy corn pudding made with freshly grown corn, sliced from the cob and mixed in a baking dish with sugar, rice milk, eggs and butter and baked for about a half hour.
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A pleasure to read this pure food poetry while eating a sad desk lunch at the office. Thank you for the beautiful reminder of what summer has to offer!
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They're both wonderful culinary paeans to summer, and I declare a tie. However, Ms Mishan's writing is also wonderful, and I thank her for making a silly "contest" into a great read.
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Most of these comments about the perfection of corn remark mainly on the butter slathered on it. A great tomato doesn't even require salt, although salt does make the flavor more vibrant.
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I’m on board with the best corn of the summer. The whole process of shucking, boiling, buttering, salting and mowing it down eat after eat with a burger or brat from the grill. Nothing better.
And let me just say this. To you people that shuck corn in the store and make a giant mess not to mention crowd others out. STOP IT!!!
Shuck. At. Home.
If you can’t tell how good the corn is by pulling down the top on a couple, go buy some creamed corn and stir.
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I always laugh when I see people shucking corn in the store. Kind of like the lady I know who grabbed up my selected asparagus and proceeded to cut it up - have a special stainless steel asparagus steamer.
Just made a large batch of pizza cooked in a wood burning smoker and used 3 year aged cheddar rather than the tasteless stuff from WI and sausage links from costco - wow are they good. The vast majority of sausage available today has way too much fat in it. Worked for several years butchering when beef came in quarters and halves.
I wouldn't rank them above summer corner or the many varieties of delicious tomatoes, but a nearby farmer's market each year sells for $1 from late spring all thru summer and early fall huge bunches of delicious, firm, almost horseradish hot ... red radishes. Clean them and in a bowl in water they can last several days, salt them, feel the burn.
As much as I love a good ripe summer tomato, the winner, by a country mile is corn. But just as many people only know "tomatoes" from the supermarket, many have never had a really great ear of fresh corn. Hours (never days) from the field, picked exactly at its peak, steamed for a couple of minutes at most (never boiled!) or slathered in olive oil, salt & pepper and placed on the grill until the sugar caramelizes.
I will readily admit to spending a good part of every summer on the quest for the perfect ear. With today's supersweet hybrids, it is easier than it once was (I remember my mother setting a pot of water on the stove and telling me to run to the field to pick for dinner) but still, it's a worthy quest.
Yes, I'm very demanding, but why settle for anything less?
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One of the few things I miss from the " Old Country"
My first stops on a summer visit = a real slice of pizza, homemade water ice and a fresh Jersey tomato
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I believe tomatoes are fruits.
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And, arguably, corn is a grain.
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Corn sauteed in butter is my new fav, however, nothing is as good as a really good home grown tomato.
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"Only two things that money can't buy: That's true love and home-grown tomatoes." - (Songwriter) Guy Clarke
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Corn, please. Specifically Jersey grown yellow corn, dripping with real melted butter and a little salt. Some would add black pepper. The absolute best summer meal is fresh picked Jersey corn, accompanied by Jersey tomatoes, Jersey peaches and/or Jersey cantelopes.
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No no no. The Times is being contrarian as usual. A thick summer tomato slice still warm from the garden on white bread with mayo, salt and pepper, dripping down my chin. As my father used to say: corn is for pigs.
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I like an aqua plate filled with two ears of corn and a sliced homegrown tomato (if it makes it passing the sink).
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One is a grain and one is a fruit, so really you don't have to choose between tomatoes and super fresh corn. Summer's greatest vegetable is any veggie you managed to get from a local farmstand.
Tomatoes, basil, cukes, fresh peppers, corn, green beans, fresh peas. Scallions, Spinach. Leaf lettuce. Summer just makes you wish you had the right yard for a big garden.
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Actually, corn is, by botanical definition, a fruit. Sweet corn is treated as a vegetable because it is grown to be eaten raw or cooked. Field corn is treated as a grain; it is harvested dry and is used as feed corn, ground into corn meal, etc.
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After writing the line "But--it feels like sacrilege to confess--I like tomatoes best in winter," the writer should have realized this disqualifies her from writing this article. Preferring CANNED SAN MARZANOS to fat, off the vine, ugly, juicy homegrown summer tomatoes makes me shudder to consider this writer's palate.
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I think the real question is corn vs. cucumber. Not sure where I fall in that debate!
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I wouldn't expect you to know anything about nutrition, but tomatoes are a fruit and corn is a grain.
But why are you promoting junk foods?
Just came in from watering the 7 cherry tomato plants-- several kinds of sun golds and sweet 100's, planted on the other side of the driveway. So delicious and forgiving of an inept gardener. Pretty soon the bushes will be big and full. We will come home from work and go out with a dish -- but eat a bunch before we get them back into the kitchen. Don't forget to water the basil plants-- oh, does that smell like summer vacation!
But if I could only take one vegetable to Mars it would have to be sweet corn. And watermelon.
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Ahhhhh....buying so much sweet corn that your first meal of it is JUST corn - four ears of buttery, salty goodness.
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You do not pluck corn from a pot. Boiling corn is an abomination. Roast it, for cryin' out loud.
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I think the best thing I've had on the grill so far this year are organic (have to have organic to have flavor) - red or yellow peppers. Actually the non-organic tiny peppers are also great grilled!
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I grow tomatoes every year. Several varieties. I eat a lot of them of course, but they are the easiest to can for the cold winter. Tomatoes are acid enough not to require a hot water bath contraption -- pressure cooker or giant cauldron. Just boil down the cut up tomatoes, put 'em in a jar and listen for the satisfying click. The jars last until last Sunday. Then we wait till late July or August -- and September, October and November and sometimes, even December for ripe fruit.
People always ask if I put sugar in the pot because the sauce is sweet and the flavors so well-developed.
Nuh-uh. That's what a real tomato tastes like. Spaghetti, anyone? Pizza? Sausages and polenta? That's the deal.
I love corn, but it doesn't transport me the way a perfectly ripened juicy plump summer tomato does. Once that short window of opportunity arrives, it's time for cooling salsas and gazpacho (both necessary for survival in this toasty apartment).
No contest, tomatoes are supreme!
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Corn corn corn. Tomatoes inconsistent even from ones garden.
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I live in central PA, with many nearby Amish farms. I stopped by a roadside stand last summer but they were out of white sweet corn - my favorite. The woman running the stand ran out to the cornfield and came back with a dozen freshly picked ears. I made them that night and they were the closest thing to heaven I had ever eaten..
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Corn dethrones the tomato? No no no! Say it isn't so! An atrocity. That yummy, plump, sun-in-a-skin tomato picked off the vine in the back yard, promptly taken into the house and sliced, plopped on a piece of homemade sourdough slathered in mayo and topped with the basil picked just next to the tomato -- that, my friends, IS summer. (Confession: we had corn roasted on the grill last night for dinner, and dang, it was delicious!)
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Home- grown tomatoes. The main reason to have a vegetable garden. As many varieties as you like. I plant about 10. Everything else is a bonus. If I couldn't grow tomatoes, I'm not sure I'd bother with rest, including the Peaches & Cream sweet corn. Case closed.
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I used to love corn on the cob. Yes, indeed it was the high point of summer! Time changes all things and it sure did when I moved to France. When I first arrived here the corn on the cob was tough and not sweet. I went through some withdrawals but nothing devastating. Even now, that I can buy fresh sweet corn to shuck, cook, and serve, I never leave it on the cob. I use 1 medium ear to serve 2 adults. 2 ears can make a decent Succotash to serve 6 adults. So is it tomatoes? Nope. My favorite tomatoes are sun dried and preserved in Extra Virgin Olive Oil....
What I miss, really truly long for, is Yellow Crook-Neck Squash and Vidalia Onions. Please send me some seeds.
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These aren’t vegetables.
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Indeed! Isn't corn a grain? And even the author concedes that tomato is a fruit.
But both are delicious when at the peak of summer perfection! Yummm...!
Must head for a farmer's market now.
I'm sorry, but in my humble opinion, the author's admission that her favorite tomatoes are _canned_ removes her from consideration as any sort of rational judge. Canned tomatoes do have their place, in various cooked dishes, but in the summertime, one wants wondrous raw tomatoes, ideally homegrown but also from farmstands or a few better markets. A properly ripened fresh heirloom tomato is on a completely different plane than a canned one (even a San Marzano). For one thing, look at the range: everything from a sugar-sweet Sungold cherry tomato to the almost meatiness of a beefsteak (with a sprinkle of coarse salt to bring out all the flavors). As to whether such a tomato or an equally fresh ear of sweet corn is better....I'm sorry, I'll need an additional serving of each before I can give you my opinion. Maybe two servings....
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Agreed. My thought is maybe the author has not eaten a really good fresh tomato, either from a farmer's market or a friend's garden. Tomatoes from supermarkets bear no comparison -- they are either hard or soft balls which are mostly watery with no flavor. Tomatoes directly from the farmer or friend have all shades of flavor. My personal favorites are actually orange or yellow tomatoes, which have less acid than the red. Don't remember exact varieties though. For red, I like Early Girl or Brandywine is also good.
I'm not a raw tomato fan. Supermarket tomatoes have ruined my appetite for them. I still recall being shocked too see that my uncle's homegrown tomatoes were deep red *all the way through.* I might vote for tomatoes as the best summer vegetable if -- and that's a big IF -- they're homegrown. Otherwise, forget it.
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My favorite summer meal. A thickly sliced tomato on a great crusty bread, or when stale, the star in a panzanella -- and I don't soak the bread in water to make that happen, as the tomato juices are enough. AND and ear of corn. No butter just salt. August can't arrive soon enough.
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Panzanella, now we're talking.
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An early memory of summer bliss was arriving at my grandmother's house, heading into the kitchen for the salt shaker and then quickly out to the garden to pluck a ripe tomato. We would eat one warm from the sun with juice dripping down our chins.
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tomatoes are fruits.
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ah yes. there's one in every crowd. However, we (tr)eat them as vegetables.
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And corn is a grain... so summer squash anyone?
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This made my day. Cannot wait for corn season. The corn pot just stays on the stove. We always buy way too much. Left-overs for creamed corn the next day. Heaven.
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This article speaks to my exact feelings on the love affair I have with corn.
Having grown up in Ohio, where we, as kids, planted our own garden full of promise, we awaiting the corn being ready as if we were about to get cotton candy at the fair. Call it hyperbole, but it was almost like waiting for christmas morning.
We had fresh melons, tomatos, and other fresh stuff from the garden but nothing left us slackjawed like the first bite into the sweet, butter-dripping cob of fresh corn. Just the smell of shucking off the silk and husk (usually outside into a brown paper grocery bag, so as not to get any on the kitchen floor) was enough to cause giddiness.
Is it July yet?
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Thanks for lightening my mood. That was a tasty piece of writing.
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Both. Summer dinner can be steamed ears of corn with butter, salt and pepper, and a salad of kirbys and tomatoes.
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Why must one choose? The best dishes and dinners combine corn + tomatoes for the ultimate summer meal.
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Tomatoes. By far. Love corn but couldn’t have it every day. Tomatoes on the other hand....
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With the terrible spring in the Mid-Atlantic (cold/damp) a lot of backyard summer gardens will be yielding a late crop of Jersey tomato's this year. All the rain, humidity and lack of sunshine is delaying a lot of planters (like me) from putting anything in the ground until maybe next week. As a result I know I will be eating a lot of corn before my own tomato's. That's fine by me because like the author of this article, I can't wait to enjoy those first ears of New Jersey corn and that's only a taste I can savor in summer.
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One of my biggest culinary regrets about moving to the UK almost 14 years ago, besides the lousy weather (no one moves to Britain for the climate), is missing out on American sweetcorn season. Oh, what I wouldn't give for a dozen ears of freshly picked Silver Queen corn come mid-August! The sweetcorn that's grown here is comparatively tasteless and has the texture of pig feed.
As for tomatoes, there's not enough sun here to grow really sweet ones, so we have to make do with visiting the Med most summers (correction: early autumn, to include fresh figs) for a taste of really delicious and juicy fresh tomatoes.
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@ Demetroula
I share your disappointment in not finding American sweet corn on the East side of the Atlantic. It is a wonderful food, as long as one can hold it between two fork-like tools, each with two needle tynes, so that melted butter would not drip on one's hands.
As for the tomatoes, the only variety I like are cherry tomatoes: they can be crushed by the pressure of the tongue against the palate, keeping all the juice in the mouth.
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I'm so sorry you don't like to get fully hands-on with your food! There is a certain joy to tomato juice or even butter on your hands and chin.
Especially shared. The author's daughter is very wise. Wish my family was still alive.
Have you ever had an heirloom tomato? My favorite is the "Pineapple Tomato," a huge, orange-striped beast. And the purpleish Cherokee. And probably any other fresh tomato. Oh, so good!
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Same having moved to continental Europe. The first thing I want every time I go home is some good corn-on-the cob, cornbread, and tamales.
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Why does American culture always need a "winner"? Why does a competition have to be the framework for an article of this kind? Our current culinary era has moved way beyond that and the focus is on appreciating each individual foodstuff for its own unique qualities and possibilities. A perspective of this kind is really reductive and out of synch with the new food reality.
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This is a really condescending and ridiculous comment. So you like every food equally. None better than the other. Good for you. You are the only one.
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What an eloquent and charming piece. While I eagerly await the first Marietta tomatoes each summer, your lush description makes the wait nearly painful.
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It's not an either-or. In the summer, our go-to weeknight dinner is grilled corn on the cob AND farmer's market tomato sandwiches. That's the best!
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The best is tomato sandwiches: soughdough bread slathered with Hellman's mayo, thick slices of ripe tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste! Enjoy
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I’m a southern girl, so Dukes is the only mayo we swear by.
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Reading Harriet the Spy as a kid began my life-long love of a good tomato sandwich. I skip the pepper though.
When my mother to Colorado from Connecticut over a year ago, she immediately asked me two very important questions. Is the water here any good? Yes, I said, it is fresh snow melt from the Rockies.
And what made her even more anxious: Is the corn good?
We get our corn here starting in May, presumably from California or Mexico, because it was still snowing two weeks ago. Talk about the taste of a Connecticut summer.
My Mom asked for half a cob; I gave her a whole one, and she plowed through that like a mower through grass.
No waiting till July anymore for sweet and lovely corn.
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Your mother will get a very nice surprise in August when Olathe sweet corn hits the market. I’ve lived in the Midwest, South, and East and think Olathe sweet corn is as good, if not better, than any other sweet corn I’ve eaten.
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I go for the tomatoes,and am getting a little weepy this time of the year,after exhausting my supply of processed tomatoes sometime in March. Right around Labor Day,I process at least 20 pounds of tomatoes,sealing them in vacu bags,where they periodically get trotted out to fill the long tomatoless months of the year. Corn is ok,also makes great desserts,but has to be just so.....
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I am slightly allergic to raw tomatoes, although I can eat salsa, because the citrus juice and hot peppers cook them a bit, like cerviche.
Too bad, because they always look so attractive.
Can i argue that both are better with basil, and therefore, it wins?
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One word answer to this article = TOMATO
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You write this in mid-May, a good two to three months before the corn and tomato season is in full swing in the Northeast?
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Neither is a vegetable, though we treat them as such.
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A vine ripened tomato from the garden or a farmer's market. An ear of corn purchased from a road-side truck. Both are perfect. Neither can take second place.
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Agreed. I love food too much to pick just one. (Though I would give up chocolate for cheese.) Had my first corn of the year yesterday, supermarket, 6 ears for a buck. It was fantastic. Time to head out to the farm stands.
But tomatoes -- rarity makes them even sweeter.
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