Choose Charleston

The perennial question asked by so-called comedians looking for a laugh at the expense of a large portion of the population of the United States. Ofcourse, the real answer to the question is a newspaper sold by boys, recruited through advertisements in comic books.

Now, if you are interested in Southern culture and cuisine, a better question to ask would be: “What are grits?”

Grits were first produced by Native Americans centuries ago. They made both grits and hominy grits. Grits are white or yellow corn that has been dried and then soaked in lye. The corn is rinsed several times and the acid neutralized before the resulting product, hominy, is produced. Once the hominy is made, this is dried and ground into Grits.

Like the shrimp, which Bubba* kept a constant monologue running about for his entire stay at boot camp, grits can be served in a variety of ways. Despite what you may hear from some people spouting fake “Southern” accents, there is no wrong way to eat grits.

Many Southern restaurants serve grits as a side dish with breakfast (although, most allow you to substitute hash browns). Some other popular ways to serve grits are, baked with cheese, sausage grits, with red-eye gravy, Nassau Grits, and ofcourse, Shrimp-grits, plus hundreds of other recipes. And, yes, it’s OK to put butter and sugar on them. I’ve done it myself.

Although grits are a primarily Southern dish, I have found them served as far away as Alaska. This is a treat for a traveling Southerner, for even instant grits are better than no grits at all.

There’s even an annual Grits Festival, held every April in the town of St. George. Some of the activities include: hand crafts, parades, a carnival, contests, dancing, music, and more….. and, ofcourse, Grits.

Southern Cuisine Recipes

_{* If you don’t get the reference to Forrest Gump, you need to rent the movie.}