Does Watties even like creamed corn?

Creamed corn is one of those food items easily overlooked until I’m doing a bulk shop for a holiday at the bach. Then I always buy a can. And it sits in the pantry until the day one stays in the surf so long and becomes so hungry that you eat your flippers and beach towel as you return home from the sea. That’s the day you open the creamed corn and make a batch of creamed-corn-and-cheese toasted sandwiches.
They stick to your ribs and fuel you for days.

Recently I found last year’s tin of creamed corn and realised it had to be eaten before a second tin arrived which would make me look like some sort of creamed corn hoarder. Really, inside a toasted sandwich is about as excited as I can get about this product but, believe me, my excitement is palpable compared with the enthusiasm Watties exhibits when it comes to its “Pick of the Crop” cream style corn.

You can gauge how a company feels about a product by the way it is presented in the serving suggestion area on the label. When it comes to creamed corn, the Watties product managers came up with the truly imaginative idea of … PUTTING IT IN A BOWL AND SPILLING SOME ON THE TABLE.

Guys, there’s a bit of competition out there in the supermarket canned vege aisles so if you can’t get excited enough about creamed corn to at least add a sprig of parsley before photographing it for the serving suggestion, why would you expect us to buy it?

So I thought let’s help Watties show its creamed corn some love by coming up with our own serving suggestions. I’ll kick off but, please, feel free to send in your own creations.

1. Obviously creamed corn toasted sandwiches with the corn, cheese and maybe a herb or two, possibly chives and a bit of chilli? If you use Vogels bread and make it really buttery then cook it slow-in-the-pan, the outcome is a toasted sandwich that is stunningly crispy and delicious and completely negates the National Heart Foundation’s approval tick won by the creamed corn product. When you sit down to eat be sure to place a large tea towel on your lap because the filling stays piping hot for about an hour and always slips out of the sandwich.
2. If you have a day ahead filled with activities like wrestling wild pigs, why not start with a hearty breakfast of creamed corn on toast with bacon, eggs, tomatoes, etc?
3. Creamed cornbread or, as we like to call it, Obama Inauguration Cornbread .

Sticking with Heinz Watties for a moment, I’d like to share a little family story with you. Many years ago, possibly nearly 30, a grandfather and his grandson of about four years of age were walking along sharing wisdom and stretching truth when the grandson asked if he could have lunch with his granddad. Granddad said that would be fine and asked the young lad what he would like for his lunch. The conversation went very much like this:

GRANDSON: Can I come to your house for lunch, Grandad?
GRANDDAD: Of course you can. What would you like to eat?
GRANDSON: Wormies.
GRANDDAD: Wormies?
GRANDSON: Yep.
GRANDDAD: What are wormies?
GRANDSON: You know, wormies, Granddad. They be orange, they be dead and they be in a can.
Ahh, thought Granddad, he wants spaghetti on toast.

© Granddad and Rhys

That’s a bit of brand love for you, Mr Wattie.