It's Mini! (part 2)

As stated in the last entry, I love all things mini. So it stands to reason that mini-corn is one of my favorite parts of Chinese steamed veggies! A couple of weeks ago, I had forgotten to bring a lunch with me to my girl's house (I am watching a little girl this summer), so we packed her a lunch, picked up some fabulous Chinese food for me, and went to the park to picnic.

As I lifted the plastic from my steamed veggie medley, she peppered me with questions:

"Is that broccoli?"
"Do you like broccoli?"
"What are those round things?"
"Why do you eat it with rice?"
"What's that?"

The last question was directed at the mini-corn.

"That's mini-corn," I responded.

"Why is it mini?" she asked.

"Well, it's not really corn. It just looks like corn. See?" I showed her.

"So what is it if it's not really corn?" she asked.

"Ummm....uhhhhh...." I articulately responded. I really didn't know. I just knew that I could pop the whole thing in my mouth at once and it was pretty tasty. Off to Google I went!

Well, color me surprised! Baby corn actually is just that - baby corn. They just pick it right away when the stalk silks appear. I thought it was some Asian delicacy and it was just called baby corn because it looked like baby corn. Nope. It's corn. As a baby. And it's not a special variety of corn, either. Field and sweet babies end up with the same flavor anyway because it's too early in the corn's life for it to have developed a sweetness.

So what does this mean nutritionally? Well....

Baby corn is high in folate, a B-vitamin; four ounces provides 31% of the RDA. It is a good source of several other nutrients too: the same serving size also provides 13 percent of the potassium, 14 percent of the B-6, 10 percent of the riboflavin, 17 percent of the vitamin C and 11 percent of the fiber adults need each day. (Baby Corn Brochure)

However, we shouldn't trade in all of our grown-up corn for baby corn:

Yellow corn contains carotenoids, which are substances that may help prevent coronary artery disease, certain cancers, and cataracts. In particular, yellow corn is abundant in two carotenoids, zeaxanthin and lutein, which keep eyes healthy. The more yellow the corn is, the more carotenoids it contains, since these compounds provide plants with color. Baby corn, being pale, would carry lesser amounts of these carotenoids than mature corn. (Baby Corn Brochure)

So, there you have it. It's cute, it's healthy, it's important enough to have it's own group of advocates make it a brochure: Baby Corn.

Click here to check out the above picture and others by Krissy.