THE Greatest FOODS of SUMMER, RANKED

Summer foods” might as well be a culinary genre in itself.

The winter has stew, spring might have chocolate bunnies, and autumn has pumpkin spice coated everything but summer has more food strictly associated with the summer (and summer alone) than any other. Everyone has a favorite summer food. And if you don’t, you probably wouldn’t be inside this article reading these words right now, would you?

The following dishes not only appeal to my own seasonal sensibilities, but represent some of the quintessential essences of the summer. Which is actually a great name for a cologne. Someone should get on that.

Anyway, put on “Summer Breeze,” (the Isley Bros. version, duh), scoop a few lightning bugs from your backyard, sweat profusely, and enjoy this jaunt down the summer food nostalgia wormhole.

1. Watermelon

I believed that swallowing watermelon seeds cause watermelons to grow inside my stomach till about three years ago. Yet I ate them anyway. That’s how much I love watermelon. They’re natural. Healthy. Cheap. Refreshing. Hydrating. Large. Nice to look at. And, you can even turn them into a keg. Not only are watermelons the ideal summer fruit, they are pretty much exclusively reserved for summer. It’s like the essence of summer was bottled by mother nature and placed in an edible vessel. It’s like the beginning of Grease suddenly turned into a fruit. It’s like God took the image of a young Ken Griffey Jr. smacking a massive donger in the left field bleachers, and allowed it to grow on a vine. Watermelon isn’t just the best food of summer. It’s the food of summer. But remember to spit out the seeds. Just in case.

Article by Wil Fulton