Adam's Top Five Foods of Summer

You know what one of my favorite things to do? Eat. I love to eat. Eating is probably one of my favorite activities. I know, that sentence probably makes me sound really fat, especially since I'm a game nerd as well, but no. I actually exercise a lot and I am in decent shape. In fact, that's all the more reason to eat.
Now that summer is here in my home of the beautiful upstate New York, it got me thinking about all the summer foods. BBQs, cook outs, ice cream parlors, and all the great yummy treats that start to come out this time of year. Now, keep in mind that these foods are foods typically associated with summer in my neck of the woods. Furthermore, it has a lot to do with my personal opinion. I'm a very picky eater, and there are a lot of foods that I just plain don't like. So without further ado, here are my top five foods of summer.

5. Hot Dogs

I'll be completely honest with you, hot dogs kind of gross me out. Do you know what's in a hot dog? The leftovers. Whatever's left after the rest of the animal has been butchered is thrown into a mix and made into a weiner. You don't know what it's in it. Bones, intestines, brains, a finger. You just don't know, and that grosses me out. However, I will admit that certain brands are kind of tasty, so I don't mind an occasional hot dog. Besides that, since hot dogs are the quintessential baseball food, and it doesn't get much more summer than baseball. This means that you can't possibly leave hot dogs off of any summer food list.
4. Corn on the Cob

I don't like vegetables very much, unless there's some kind of a catch. Like they're covered in cheese or something. Pretty much the sole exception to this is corn. I like corn in pretty much any form, but when summer rolls around, you have to have it on the cob. Corn on the cob is best when it's fresh and bought from a farmer's market (and living in upstate New York, there are PLENTY of farmers markets.) Shucked, steamed, and slathered butter, corn on the cob is a essential ingredient to any summer cook out or BBQ. It's sweet, it's messy, and it's just plain fun to eat.
3. Fruit Salad

...as long as it doesn't contain melon. I don't like melons or cantaloupe or anything like that. But I love my fruit. Fruit rules. Apples, bananas, grapes, oranges, berries, yum. Salads are a big thing at cook outs and barbecues around here, but I'm not a big salad fan. Of ANY kind, really. Even fruit salad often contains stuff I don't like. But since salad, in all it's variaties, is so popular in the summer, I had to include it in some way. So that's why fruit salad, with exceptions, is number 3.
2. Ice Cream

Oooooooooooh yeah. I've checked lots of ice cream consuming states and they're all different, but my home state of New York is always near the top, with good reason. Here in NY, we LOVE our ice cream. My family, in fact, eats ice cream all year round. But in the summer, nothing quite hits the spot like a few scoops of the cold stuff. My personal preference is the ever tasty Sundae, but it doesn't matter how you eat it. Cone or dish, sprinkles or nuts, hard or soft, even just straight up plain. It's pretty much timeless, too. You can eat it at noon when the sun is high and it's most hot, or when you're just "chilling" with your friends. As a dessert to wash down everything you ate at the barbecue. I like to grab a cone as a way to "cool off" after a hard day or a long drive. However you do it, you can't deny that in the summer heat, nothing is better than than a frosty treat. (Wow, that was a queer rhyme.)
And finally, the number one best food of summer:
1. Burgers

Not just my favorite of summer, but one of my favorites EVER, surpassed only by pizza (which isn't on this list because it's an anytime food.) I eat burgers all year round, but during the summer, my consumption of them doubles. Burgers are like the perfect food. They are easy to make, extremely customizable, very portable, and almost universally loved. Much like ice cream, it doesn't matter how to make it. Cheeseburgers or hamburgers, turkey burgers, venison burgers. Medium well to raw to burnt to a crisp. As long as it is a ground meat patty between two pieces of bread. The only wrong way to make a burger is a way that you don't like. My personal favorite is a burger with cheese and loaded with either dill pickles or hot peppers (but not both at the same time.)
Summer is an awesome time. I absolutely love it. Food is just one thing that makes summer great. So as we go into the month of June, make sure you have fun, and eat lots! Just don't get fat.