As a native La Louisiane I sometimes prefer my grits sweet (just add some sugar to plain grits) or with a little egg (mix a bit of fried egg with plain grits)...yum!
This northern boy never really had grits until a couple years ago. Cheese grits, at that. They are a staple now. I've been using grits from Aldi. Good every time, and c-h-e-a-p!
If it's any consolation, I don't suppose that the $12 polenta has much to do with the real stuff back in Italy, which was historically peasant fare.
My 9 year old likes plain-cooked polenta with maple syrup and butter. Nice way to get the chitlins to eat their grains. 
odly as a northern (hell my family came for mpitsburge, so we have allways been northerners) I have had grits my whole life, staple of saterday mornign breakfest...the nyou take the lefovrs let tehm harden and fry them sunday mroning.
as a breakfest ceral I like my corn ground a little finer into corn meal...give me a big bolw of cornmeal mush and I'm happy
They used to sell a processed garlic cheese that came in a roll and you mixed that with grits to make garlic grits. Quite tasty. I wonder what will be the next poverty food that becomes hip? Welsh rarebit? Pigs feet? Buttermilk biscuits? The food faddists will mess them up and have Welsh rarebit with balsamic vinegar and fois gras.
According to Heat by Bill Buford (an immensely entertaining account of the author's experiences running down chef Mario Batali's style and substance), it ain't "polenta" unless it's been on the stove for at least 3 hours, with the chef adding water continuously, until some kinda miraculous transformation happens. I found his description of the process fascinating.
Now, I ain't one to knock grits, mind you--his Western PA boy first sampled 'em on one of our family jaunts to the Carolinas, over three decades ago. A little butter and sugar on top, with an egg over easy...mmmmm.
[t]his Western PA boy, that is...
grits (hammana-hammana-hominy!)
cheddar cheese (Masamune-sharp, check!)
fried fish (mullet for a preference, but bring 'em on)
if Conan himself had answered the above to: "what is best in life?", i think even that old war-master of the east would have had to consider hard, & then give it to him...just make sure your fish are thoroughly de-boned before you lift the fork w/ intent, as afterword you'll be gobbling too gluttonously to care...
YUM.
I like fried polenta sticks for the leftovers. double yum
Yeah, when I first saw polenta in the fancy sections of the stores I just had to laugh- because it's poor man's food all the way. My parents were from Slovenia so mom would cook it all the time in various ways. She later told me she hated it because corn mush was all they had to eat a lot of the time on the farm she grew up on. We never had it by itself, always with some sort of a sauce- the way you would do pasta.
One thing she would do was take spoonfuls of cooked polenta and drop them into boiling chicken stock. Cook it up for a while (again, like pasta I suppose), and serve the soup up with some fresh chives on top. Tasty.
Just had to come out of the woodwork for a little bugbear of mine...
Foodie restaurants love this ritzy Italian corn porridge they like to call "polenta."
They don't "like to call" it polenta. That's its name.
Just because ritzy restaurants use an inexpensive traditional rural Italian peasant dish in their overpriced wares doesn't mean it isn't still called polenta.
Ironically, I don't actually like polenta fresh. It's only after its firmed up in the fridge over night that I adore it fried in a pan, placed in a bowl, and topped with tomato sauce. YUM.
Polenta smothered in tomato gravy is a known comfort food out here in the sticks of Northern California. What's special is how the "toogoo" (phonetic spelling) is made. Wild game bird, porcini mushrooms, garlic, fresh tomatoes, marjoram, cooked long and slow. Throw a loaf of fresh Genova milk rolls on the table... Heaven.
The hillbilly-Italian cuisine axis is interesting indeed, and it's beyond grits and polenta.
I was born and raised in North Carolina, but now live in New York City. When I run out of country ham from the stock I replenish every time I visit down South, prosciutto works a treat. 
And oh, the things that hillbillies and Italians can do with a pot of white beans.
Polenta smothered in tomato gravy is a known comfort food out here in the sticks of Northern California. What's special is how the "toogoo" (phonetic spelling) is made. Wild game bird, porcini mushrooms, garlic, fresh tomatoes, marjoram, cooked long and slow. Throw a loaf of fresh Genova milk rolls on the table... Heaven.
bumpster | 01.08.08 - 2:31 am
can i come over for dinner?
Sara, the condescending tone is not endearing. Polenta is peasant food.
Someone Else, don't be pedantic. Better yet: read the whole paragraph, please. They "like to call it 'polenta,'" but those of us who grew up in the American backcountry know hominy grits when we see 'em. And a fancy Eye-taliano name ain't gonna fool us.
And tata, it's not condescending to point out when some city slicker is putting on airs in an effort to sell simple country food at absurdly high prices. (In fact, I'd argue that in this case, the condescension is going precisely the opposite direction. The upper crust wouldn't touch the stuff if it was put on the menu as "grits.")
Interesting to hear from everyone how this most native of American fare (which was an Indian staple from Mexico to Quebec long before Columbus) has gotten around Europe, though.
Sara, you're much too sophisticated to use phrases like city slicker without it soundling like a slap across the face. And I spent all afternoon writing a rebuttal to your unpleasant post.
Actually, polenta and grits are different. Not checking that out and saying that they're the same thing isn't correct, and it does come across as condescending.
I can't speak to whether or not the polenta in your local Italian specialty markets is stale, but I do know that grits are different from polenta the way that beef hot dogs are different from hamburgers. Both start out as beef, but not exactly the same parts, and then they're put through different processing methods.
For the record, I am crazy about grits *and* polenta. Corn is yummy.
mmm. One of the few traditional breakfast foods I like: what my mother called "corn meal mush" cakes, fried and served with syrup. (the other one I like is kippers)
3 Visitors Online
Commenting by HaloScan
