What is seasonal and what is fresh and sweet? In my opinion, corn and edamame in June can be the best interpretation. Corn and edamame are both multi-season crops and can be planted multiple times throughout the year, but they only taste the best when they mature in June. They are the best seasonal dishes and are extremely delicious.
The corn in June is soft, glutinous and sweet, with a refreshing fragrance. The edamame in June is delicious, fragrant and tender, with a faint rue grassy aroma. The difference in crops in June may be related to the fact that the Yang Qi is the most abundant in June. The summer solstice of awn planting brings about the lushness and maturity of crops. Especially in the south of the Yangtze River, there is still abundant during the plum rains period. The air is humid and hot, which is most suitable for crop growth. It is said that even a bamboo pole can survive during the plum rains season. Therefore, June is the most changing season of the year, with the charm of turning decay into magic. This is the season. It's June, and soon the corn is old and the edamame is overripe, and they no longer have the delicious seasonal flavor.
Unfortunately, June of this year is over. The streets in Huangyan City are full of corn sellers, but we have not come across the good corn that we want. So far, we have not tasted the ideal soft, waxy and sweet corn. If the delicious corn is treated as a four-dimensional indicator based on "soft, waxy and sweet", and each dimension is 100% full score, then the score of this year's corn will be as follows.
"Soft" represents softness and tenderness. This year's "soft" degree is only about 70%. Not very tender.
"糯" represents the degree of stickiness and saturation. This year, there is only about 50% of the "glutinous" degree left.
"Fragrance" represents deliciousness. This year, only 50% of the "fragrance" level is left. There is no tangy fragrance at all, which is very ordinary.
"Sweet" represents the best quality. In the past, when you bite into the corn, it will explode with juice, and there will be a sweet corn flavor in the juice. It is different from other sweets and has the exclusive sweetness of corn. This year only 30% of the "sweetness" is left. I have yet to eat corn that is sweet and juicy. The so-called "sweet corn" is sweet in memories.
The quality of this year’s “soft, waxy and sweet” corn is too low. Looking at edamame, June has passed and we still haven’t seen any local edamame being put on the market on a large scale. Similarly, edamame can also be indexed by the four dimensions of "delicious, fragrant and tender".
"Fresh", fresh and seasonal, it feels like the edamame on the market today is not local, but shipped from other places in freezers. Although it is seasonal, it is not fresh.
"Beauty", beautiful body. It should not be dry and meatless, nor should it be too full and overcooked. Seven points of perfection and the most delicious.
"fragrant", the taste is fragrant, and the bean is fragrant. There is a faint bean aroma as soon as it is opened, and a strong rue aroma emerges as soon as it is steamed and the lid is opened.
"Tender", the beans should not be overcooked, they will become old when they are cooked, and they will become hard when they are old. It's tender and elastic when you pick it up, and you can snap off a flap with just a push of your hands. This is an excellent condition. More importantly, the edamame bean clothing must be thin and green and translucent, which is the ultimate in tenderness.
Unfortunately, I haven’t tasted the “delicious, fragrant and tender” edamame this year. The four-dimensional index of "delicious, fragrant and tender" may be only 50% of previous years, which is far from the ideal seasonal edamame.
Why are the freshest corn and edamame in June not as delicious as in previous years? It may have something to do with this year's rainy season. There was too much rain and too little sunshine in April and May, resulting in slow and weak crop growth, which affected the development of the mature season. In addition, today's varieties of cash crops are increasingly developing in the direction of abandoning taste and increasing yields. The price of plump and strong crops is a decrease in taste. Look at today's corns. They are all big and solid, but they taste very ordinary. I think back to when I was a kid, the corn was just a little bit big, and there might be bugs living in it, but it tasted really fragrant, tender and delicious. Unfortunately, the yield of that small variety of corn is low and no one grows it at all. This is true for corn, and so is edamame.
