Grits

[bill_schubert]

When I was young I used to put sugar on grits.  Of course I put sugar on white rice, cereal, hot cereal and pretty much anything that did not already have salt on it.  The grits were not much back then.  Runny instant type stuff.  I remember eating them (is grits the only food that leans towards plurality rather than the singular 'it'?  I find it hard to think of grits as an it.. seems to be better as a them) in the cafeteria sunday brunch at Wake Forest U.  when we were growing up. 
Point being I always thought of grits as a sweet food.  But then I discovered true grit(s) so to speak.  There was a store near where my parents lived in Charleston called Hoppin' Johns.  The had real grits you could buy to make youself.  He's closed now, online only.  But I still buy grits from him (http://www.hoppinjohns.com/cgi-bin/screenbld.asp?Request=HoppinJohnHome).  I buy 4 bags at a time and freeze them.  That usually lasts me a year.  One cup of dry grits when cooked works out to a good size pot full and will last a week.  It is a salty food.  I usually add garlic, sometimes a lot of garlic (never know about those Texas vampires) when I'm cooking them.  It takes about 2 hours to cook a batch but there is nothing like it.  A ladel of grits with a fried egg on top makes a full breakfast. 
What I'm having now.  Smelling the smoke from the barbeque, hearing the noisy birds and our wind mobile.  Hanging with Zoe my friend (disguised as a dog) on the couch.

Comments

[susandennis]

I love this. Sunday brunch at Wake Forrest? I have no memory of that at all. I can't even picture the cafeteria. I remember Krispy Kreme before church. I do remember your putting sugar on grits and rice. You are the only person I ever saw do that.

[theryn.livejournal.com]

We used to eat rice with sugar, cinnamon, and butter, in fact I still do sometimes. But, my grandmother would have never allowed sugar on grits (white corn only). The only thing we ever put on grits was butter and a sprinkle of salt and pepper if we were fancy. I'm not a southerner, we eat them in the midwest too, especially the older generation who grew up with them on the farm.

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

I've never had grits, but I always imagined it as leaning toward salty... kinda like polenta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polenta), I guess.