What food is the most fantastic when it is fresh (as compared to how you usually get it). I

[applegrove]

spent time on a farm as a kid. We drank fresh unpasturized milk at all our meals. It was so tasty. I know it is dangerous but I would certainly taste it again if it were put before me.

Second would be apples in September. Apples are a completely different animal when they have only been off a tree for only a day.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Sweet corn, right off the stalk.

Pick it, run to the kitchen and throw it into the pot. Nothing better.

[applegrove]

2. Oh yum.

[tblue]

3. We have a veggie garden.

Nothing like a freshly picked organic tomato!!! No comparison with the store-bought mushy tasteless ones.

[MiddleFingerMom]

4. Corn on the cob and green peas...

.
.
.
Used to pick them and eat a couple (peas, a BUNCH!!!) right there in the garden, uncooked.
.
.
.

[applegrove]

6. Oh yeah. My parents had a vegetable garden at the cottage. You could pull a baby carrot out of the

earth, wash the dirt off with a hose, and munch away.

[NightWatcher]

5. Seafood while still on the boat that caught it.

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. I haven't been on the fishing boat, got mine further down the line, but yes,

fresh fish is the thing.

[MiddleFingerMom]

11. PBS used to have a cooking show called "Floyd on Fish" (with some of the coolest theme music ever)..

.
.
.
... where the host (as constantly and consistently and exceedingly shitfaced
as the OLD Galloping Gourmet used to be) would cook on the galleys of small
fishing boats. GREAT show -- if only to count the number of times he would
entice the crews (both fishing and filming) to join him in some more wine.
.
.
.

[SwissTony]

17. I agree with fish

I used to go camping,fishing and snorkling. We quite often had a meal from fish that had been swimming less than an hour before. It was to die for. After such a trip, I couldn't face store bought fish for weeks.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. Chow Mein at a Chinese restaurant that makes fresh hand-pulled noodles daily.

It's not a meal, it's an experience...the flavor, the texture. Unbelievable.

[Chan790]

8. Fresh Gnocchi

Fresh pillows of slightly-potatoey pasta with a thin sauce made of fresh vine-ripe tomatoes and fresh basil and red wine topped with ricotta salada. The combination is perfection.

[applegrove]

9. I love Italian food. Once a year I got to a gluten free italian restaurant with my brother. Yummy.

[nadine_mn]

12. Twizzlers licorice - don't laugh

A friend of ours worked for Hershey and went to visit the plant and brought me back a package of Twizzlers that had literally been just sealed off the machine.

Didn't even taste the same as stuff that has been on shelves for years - melted in my mouth. Mmmmm.

Strawberries - picked on one of those You Pick Em farms... mmmmmm

Wild Raspberries - lots of work to find them but soooo good

[applegrove]

14. I love black licorice.

[Denninmi]

15. Believe it or not, you can microwave licorice to freshen it up.

Put it in a sealed bag and nuke for about 20 seconds for a full package. Check it, and continue to microwave in 10 second intervals until its softened up. Be sure not to overdo it, or it can burn or get harder.

[SwampG8r]

13. eggs

i cant even start but its eggs

[suninvited]

16. the local vegetable market here

sells unpasturized milk. My daughters gets it sometimes, but I haven't tried it.

It is labeled "for pet use only" because I guess it can't be sold for human consumption. She says it is delicious.

[lost-in-nj]

18. I grew radishes one year

and the taste of a fresh radish from right out of the ground and rinsed off is amazing...


lost

[Ineeda]

19. Tomatoes

or tow-mah-toes. Either one.

[Curmudgeoness]

29. That's the truth. Out of season tomatoes? What are they?

This is why I grow my own tomatoes (the only thing I do well with).

[Brickbat]

20. I agree with peas and fish. I grew tomatoes for the first time this year because I would really

like to like fresh tomatoes, but I don't. So I grew some, thinking that having a fresh one I grew myself would show me the secret of awesome home-grown tomatoes. Well, I grew them, and I'm eating them, but I honestly don't taste a difference. Mr. Brickbat says he does -- in fact, he says, they're fantastic -- but they just taste like tomatoes to me. Ha!

[MiddleFingerMom]

21. Even homegrown, you might need to go for heirloom tomatoes for an old-fashioned flavor and texture,

.
.
.
I went to a environmental liberal activist convention in the 80's
and saw a film about agribusiness with an explanation for terrible
tomatoes. The breeding efforts had all gone towards making the
tomato STURDY enough to survive a fall from conveyor belt to the
bottom of the bin of a big harvester when it was empty (maybe 15
feet).
.
.
.

[Brickbat]

25. Ha! They are heirloom. Got the seeds from Victory Seeds, which specializes in heirlooms. I mean,

don't get me wrong, the tomatoes are fine -- they make good salsa, are nice on sandwiches and will sauce up well. But I don't have a tomatogasm the way some do when they eat a fresh homegrown tomato.

[6000eliot]

22. I love tomatoes right off the vine.

I've never bought one that tastes the same.

[Shagbark Hickory]

23. All of it!

[HopeHoops]

24. Asparagus - no contest.

[rrneck]

26. I worked a family farm

that had a peach orchard. I could walk across the yard to the orchard, hold my hand under a peach the size of a grapefruit and touch it with my middle finger where it would drop into my hand.

I have eaten very few peaches since I left that farm.

[RebelOne]

27. A friend of mine went fishing in the Caribbean,

caught some red snapper and kept it on ice. When he returned he gave me one. The is nothing better than red snapper freshly caught.

[Curmudgeoness]

28. Peaches. I refuse to even buy them at the store, only

at the farmer's markets when they come into season. Then.....I can make myself sick!

[Zephie]

30. Oranges and orange juice!

I grew up about a mile from an orange grove. Local, fresh, oranges just make the things you pick up at supermarkets absolutely unpalatable. I picked up a bag the other day from the supermarket (the grove doesn't open for a few more weeks) because I was getting sick and wanted some vitamin C, ended up throwing them all away. Just disgusting and going to seed, one was even molding in the bag.

[pokerfan]

31. Dungeness crab right out of the trap and into the pot

:drool:

[femmocrat]

32. Fresh cut broccoli from the garden.

It is much sweeter-tasting than store-bought.

Anything right from the garden is always better.