A Grits Explainer
I eat grits. I always have and I always will. Because they're delicious, that's why. Grits are a simple dish: ground corn, salt and a little butter, the traditional way. Sometimes folks get a little fancy and start adding cheese, chopped sausage or bacon and other delicacies. Grits are a savory dish. They are not oatmeal or cream of wheat. Keep the sugar and milk away from them.
People who aren't from the parts of the south where grits are commonly served are often suspicious of the dish. After all, the name suggests something you'd spit out rather than swallow. Because of all the other well-earned baggage being a southerner entails, I've never been one to join the battle of Grits Mountain to defend our dietary choices. Don't like grits? Fine. More for me. You don't know what you're missing. Never tried grits? Don't be close-minded.
Just because you are in a place surrounded by Southern accents, don't think that you have a guarantee that grits will be on the menu. I was laughed at in the mountains of Virginia for trying to order them at a gas station cafe located just off the Appalachian Trail. Conversely, don't automatically despair when traveling. I have seen them on menus as far north as Maine.
Grits rank right up with rice and beans as good food for lean times. They're cheap, filling and nutritious. The method of processing corn prior to grinding it for some varieties of grits exposes a form of Vitamin B that prevents pellagra, a particularly foul variation on malnutrition. Because they are light, and often sold in a pre-seasoned portable instant form, grits are much loved by backpackers.
They aren't a plebeian dish, though. Plenty of restaurants with linen tablecloths offer shrimp and grits, using the stone-ground variety for better flavor and adding butter, garlic, onion, peppers, celery, cheese and sometimes a splash of lemon or a little Cajun seasoning.
Don't go so far towards haute-cuisine that you convince yourself that ordering polenta in an Italian place is the moral equivalent of grits consumption, because it isn't. Polenta uses a different type corn and it isn't processed in a way that exposes the vitamins in grits. Polenta is a poor substitute for the real thing and you lose bonus points for trying to be sophisticated.
To all of the people reacting in horror or making gagging sounds at the prospect of eating…corn. Grow up. If you want to mock the south, mock our per-pupil spending or our lack of unions. Leave our food out of it.
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