There are a lot of different varieties even of sweet corn though. I’ve eaten actual field corn here in the U.S., I’d be surprised if it was considered good tasting anywhere.
Am I the only one whose supermarket not only carries sweet corn (labeled as “corn” or “sweet corn”) but also supersweetand ultrasweetcorn, labeled with those adjectives? And yes, like the author of that second link, sometimes I’ve had corn that is *too *sweet, even for this sweet loving American!
Maybe it’s an Illinois thing. “Sweet” is definitely a positive descriptor for corn here, and quite often included on painted roadside signsadvertising produce stands.
(And now “sweet” looks like the most ridiculous arrangement of letters ever. It’s achieved non-word status by overuse in this post.)
It is not common in England but it can be found.
Our supermarkets almost always carry SuperSweet corn. I find it too sweet and not “corny” enough. It’s like sugar on the cob to me. I prefer the older varieties of sweet corn but they are harder to find. There are a couple of stalls at the farmer’s market that sell it and I go out of my way to patronize them.
For field corn/feed corn to be at all tasty, it pretty much has to be dropped in the pot directly after being picked. If you wait even two or three hours, it will be gluey and tasteless.
very common here, with butter and salt. But always prepared at home.
I’d put it as a barbecue season food item.
In England plenty of people commonly eat it boiled or steamed as a side with meat. But as I posted earlier, you don’t tend to find it sold as a snack food on its own. If you say “sweetcorn” to most British people, they’d probably think of the cans of corn off the cob.
I’m surprised by all the positive answers here. Maybe it’s a measure of increasing US culture domination. I recall that, back when Johnny Carson ruled The Tonight Show, a hispanic guest (Ricardo Montalban, I’m pretty sure, but I’;ve been wrong about this before) stated that he was surprised by all the Americans eating corn on the cob, because back where he came from, that was food for pigs. This wasn’t stated in an insulting way, or anything – just a Statement of Fact.
Whilst not directly related to consumption, I thought it might be of interest to some on here to learn that corn husks / residue is starting to be used as a clean cooking bio-mass fuel in some poor nations, mainly due to efforts by Amy Smith and her ‘charcoal projects’. I heard her speak in a TED lecture - well worth checking out, especially good as a smartphone app - and found the possibilities of her work fascinating. The highest cause of death in children under 5 years of age is not waterborne disease or malaria as might be thought, but in fact respiratory illnesses brought on by the burning of unclean cooking fuels indoors – 2 million kids a year die for the lack of clean burning fuel.
Anyhow, we eat corn on occasion (in the UK) but on the cob is generally, as said, a BBQ side dish, served with melting butter. We do have (tinned) sweet corn with meals regularly though.
yeah corn on the cob is common in the UK - usually boiled or steamed or sometimes parboiled and fried.
Some Indian people I know eat it a lot but literally just stick it on the tava raw and heat it without oil until it’s blackened on the outside.
That’s not really different than how it is served here in the US. It’s generally a side dish for cookouts.
It’s eaten in Japan. Sometimes mayonnaise is used as a topping.
Perhaps we can say, “North American cultural domination.” Here in Canada, we grow enough of it, and it is very popular, whether it comes from farm stands or the supermarket. Heck, I’ve had corn-on-the-cob shoved at me since childhood; at dinners, cookouts, and suchlike. You cannot get away from it in the summertime; your host will give it to you whether you want it or not.
Sadly, my teeth will not allow me to eat it, according to my dentist. 
I have to fend off overly-concerned hosts, who wonder why I will not eat their corn-on-the-cob.
South Asians do not eat corn on the cob because of the domination of American culture. They’ve been eating corn on the cob long before globalized mass media.
Corn being eaten everywhere is part of the food globalization that took place after the Americas were “discovered” by the Europeans. Corn, potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts, chilies and chocolate amongst others practically flew around the world finding homes everywhere they could grow.
Corn-on-the-cob may not even be an American (as in USA) invention. It such an obviously easy way of eating it, I would think that many foodies of throughout the world might have stumbled on it on their own.
I like it best soaked in water, then cooked in the husk on a hot charcoal pit fire. Peel the husk back to use as a handle and dip the cob into a coffee can full of warm water and butter and sprinkle it with lemon pepper and a touch of chipotle spice. Oh yum!
Ditto South Africans (to the extent that I had to look up what “corn on the cob” was when I first encountered the term - Maize is mielies and corn is wheat.)
Maize vendors are such a common thing, that door-to-door sellers have even entered popular culture. That and you get the street food guys selling fresh-grilled ears all over the place (well, not so much in Cape Town, because we’re not a maize-growing area, but in Johannesburg definitely,) although we usually cook ours at home, boiled with butter and salt.
Corn on the cob is roadside, foodcart food in the Philippines. I haven’t had it so I don’t know how it compares to American sweetcorn.
I am skeptical of the assertion that the corn eaten on the cob in Europe is not sweet corn.
No, sweet corn is specifically bred to have a high sugar content. There are even some that are marketed as “super sweet.” Living in the middle of corn country, the level of sweetness of the corn is quite the bragging issue.
The sugar converts to starch as it ages which is why the places that sell sweet corn brag that it was picked that morning… and highly encourage you to eat it that day (next at the latest) to get the proper experience of the sweet corn.
Don’t believe me, feel free to compare sweet corn to field corn side by side. Field corn is next to impossible to find in a grocery store here in the US as it is normally raised until dry and reserved for animal feed, but if you can find a field growing it… pick an ear and you will understand why it is not normally fed to humans.
It is sweetcorn (not field corn). I think there may be some confusion arising from different people in this thread using the term sweetcorn or sweet corn in different ways.