We ate at Long John Silvers and enjoyed their hush puppies, whatever they are. Made from cornmeal, flour and a bit of onion I think. It’s the only place I think I have seen them in NE Ohio. My first wife was from Virginia and I considered her family quite southern But I remember her first encounter of them, also at a LJS. She had no idea what they were. She was not an adventurous eater and almost refused to try one.
As for grits, I know I have come across them from time to time on a breakfast menu. Maybe I-HOP serves them. I like them.
So what is the natural range of these southern staples? I say natural range because there is bound to be some diner in Fargo or somewhere that offers grits.
First met hush puppies at a chain seafood place on the Oregon coast around the early 1990s. I like them.
Here in Sacramento, grits only seem to appear at soul food restaurants or on store shelves. DH dislikes instant, but likes what he can get from a restaurant. I haven’t been interested in trying them for some reason.
You’ll find both grits and hush puppies here in Chicago, though the former will tend to be at soul food places (though not exclusively, as shrimp and grits is a standout dish that can fit all sorts of menus). The latter will be at fast-food-type seafood places, though you’re more likely to find French fries as the side. The shrimp shack nearest my house has hush puppies. The most well-known one (arguably) in Chicago, Lawrence’s Fish and Shrimp, has corn fritters instead, which is similar but not exactly the same.
Hushpuppies are said to originate from South Carolina, where they spread to North Carolina, Georgia and Florida and are usually served along with seafood or barbecue. I think the first place I had them was at the Duck Inn in Virginia Beach, which is sadly no more. Wonderful place for a lot of reasons. Of course you can find them all over the place now.
Grits originated with Native American people in the Southeast who of course used maize. Settlers found that corn grew much better in that area than wheat, so corn was the default grain of the area. Very common dish all over the Southeast though of course you can find instant grits in grocery stores all over the country now. I remember having instant grits decades ago where I grew up in Ohio.
If you hate grits, and you’ve only had instant grits, you don’t hate grits, you hate spackling paste. Good grits are the bomb, especially yellow grits. Last year I tried adding some spices to my grits along with the cheddar and butter and little bit of half-and-half: some smoked paprika, some cumin, some cayenne, some garam masala.
Oh. my. GOD.
If you hate grits, and you try this, you may become a convert.
As for hush puppies, even fish camps sometimes get them wrong. They need to be burn-your-mouth hot, and sweet but not too sweet. Weirdly, the best dip for them is butter, but a good cocktail sauce is also tasty.
Are you asking the natural range in 1960-1970 or now in 2023? Darn good bet both have spread a long way since Ye Olden Dayes just post WW-II of highly separate regional cuisines in the USA.
I moved from Southern California to smallish town Oklahoma in 1981 for USAF. Prior to then I’d heard of grits but never seen them. Grits were commonplace on Oklahoma menus then, and may have been since forever ago.
Quaker brand grits have been on the grocery store shelves when I lived in Nevada in the 1980s, Missouri in the 1990s-2000s, and of course in FL now in the 2010s+.
IIRC hushpuppies were available in the 1970s in Los Angeles in national chain fishnchips stores, e.g. Long John Silvers, Arthur Treachers, etc. But rarely in other restaurants.
IMO … Grits are wonderful. Plain is good, but jazzed up is better. Hushpuppies are just deepfried greaseballs of nasty. Then again, I don’t enjoy much of anything deep fried and never have.