I’m a New Yorker, but I love grits. I actually prefer them plain, or with just a little butter. Not many restaurants around here serve them. Denny’s has them as a breakfast side dish, and there’s a Cajun place near me that serves great shrimp-and-grits (and, on some nights, an even better salmon-and-grits).
When I watch that scene in My Cousin Vinny, I want to yell at the screen, “You’re Italian! It’s polenta! Southern-style polenta!”
I guess Vinnie’s Italian immigrant grandparents ate so much polenta when they were starving and malnourished back in the old country that when they made it to America they vowed that their kids would never have to touch the stuff. And so a generation of Italian-Americans grew up not knowing what polenta was.
My ex (who, like me, was a native Californian, but who spent part of her childhood in Georgia) tried to introduce me to grits with the supermarket stuff. I thought it was blah and decided I didn’t like grits. Recently Trader Joe’s started stocking some fancy white grits that for some reason tempted me, and oh boy, was that good. Especially gussied up with plenty of cheese and black pepper, accompanying a plate of scrambled eggs. Unfortunately it was only around for a year or less, and seems to have disappeared from the TJ shelves.
They’re excellent just with butter. The idea of cheese grits sounded repulsive to me, but I tried some recently and thought they were good as well.
Ladle a large puddle of grits onto a soup plate. Sprinkle liberally with shredded jack or cheddar cheese and chopped green onions. Top with grilled shrimp. Add a few dashes of Tabasco sauce, if you like. Heaven.
Apparently (according to an article by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in the Guardian) polenta was introduced to Italy in the 17th century from America, via Spain.
Salt and pepper liberally, butter well, and top with 2-3 strips of crumbled bacon or even crumbled breakfast sausage.
I like them. Usually a little butter and salt, but they’re OK plain, too.
That’s pretty much how I explain grits to anyone who hasn’t heard of them. “You’ve heard of Cream of Wheat? This is like Cream of Corn.”
Grits are the bomb. I like 'em with salt/pepper/butter because they are an unobtrusive vector for salt/pepper/butter. If you’ve never tried grits, just think of corn on the cob without the hassle. In fact, anything corn based–take it and toss it in a blender and you got grits+whatever. Grits gives me the strength to grow old. If I ever lose my mouth, all my teeth north and south, I’ll just make cheezy jalapeno grits and, VIOLA: Nachos for old folks!
Grits to me are sort of meh. In no way do I dislike them, but they just don’t have the culinary allure of good hash browns. The yellow grits are better than the white grits. Cooking yellow grits in rich home made chicken broth makes them worthwhile eating.
Good grief, are you eating regular field corn on the cob?
Wallpaper Paste + Romulan Emergency Rations = Grits.
:eek: I no longer want to make jalapeno grits.
I love grits. Butter and salt? Sure. Cheese and bacon? Of course. Want something sweet? Brown sugar and cinnamon. Mmm.
I will look next time time I am there. And I’m female. 
Slight side-track: You just made me realize something. My step-father grew the corn we ate, and then he grew the corn we fed to the animals. He called it “feed” corn but now I bet that’s how he said field.
For years I looked for Hickory Cane but could never find it. Finally I learned it’s “Hickory King.” 
But that’s what everybody called it.
Grits are horrible. Polenta is so much better! (lol) My wife actually has a friend who believes this.
A Yankee who went to boarding school in FL, I ate my cafeteria grits with sugar. I’m over that now, though, and prefer them with salt, butter, and bacon. Isn’t anything better with bacon?
My father loves flavored grits. Living in MI, he can’t find flavored grits, so he buys flavored potato chips and crumples them up in it. Yum! My compliments to the chemist! (In any case, a clever solution.)
Feed corn and field corn are both used and mean the same thing.
I’ve eaten field corn. In high school, my buddy and I (both city boys) were doing a little dirt biking. On the way home he grabbed a few ears, which we cooked up when we got home. Big disappointment! That’s how I learned about the distinction.
Grits are a first food here in the South. Having eaten grits since I was a baby, I don’t know how to not love them.
Kellogg’s/Post Corn Flakes are made from grits. Add malt barley for flavor. Ground, flattened, toasted, steamed, boxed, and shipped to a store near you.