Thanks – and to all, for all explanations / recipes re “casserole-y stuff”. Perhaps as a Brit, I fail to “get it”; but the big role seemingly played here by canned soup, comes across as a bit unappealing to me. Wonder whether a “snob” version of the green bean casserole might be done, starting from all-fresh ingredients?
I had to Google Chicken a la King; but that sounds nice.
My step daughter likes green bean casserole, unfortunately. I’ve suggested making it from fresh ingredients, and the concept does not go over well.
Mama Plant bought frozen chicken a la King when I was a child, and it fellated with great alacrity.
That’s a little bit backwards. Lactose intolerance is the normal situation, with alctose tolerance being a mutation.
Most of the adult mammals in the world are unable to digest lactose well. They stop producing lactase enzyme after they stop nursing.
European-descended populations have a mutation that keeps the lactase production turned on, which allows them to digest milk and milk products well into adulthood.
We make “fresh” green bean casserole several times a year. It’s quite good, and not at all what my mother used to serve.
Chicken a la King is also quite tasty when prepared correctly, which it almost never is. You usually get it on the convention circuit, or at “banquets” honoring someone you don’t know. Back when we still had a “Lunch lady” in charge of the school cafeteria, she produced Chicken a la King for the faculty one day. It was delicious, but I told her I knew she had FM 10-23 back in the kitchen, and if there was ever a hint of SOS, I would have to report her. 
The Chinese are decades ahead of the west in terms of dairy consumption. I present to you… DEEP FRIED MILK!
Fried Chicken and Waffles is another dish that gives many non-Americans a WTF.
A friend from China had several comments on American eating habits. Here are two I remember:
Cold milk on cereal in the morning? That’s disgusting!
What it is with ice in every drink?!?
Here’s a question for Europeans: Turnips, yes or no?
I was reading a book on World War I and it said that when the British blockade got really bad, Germans began eating turnips. Up until then, turnips had been considered as stuff you feed animals not something people would eat. I assume this was common throughout Europe and not just in Germany.
Did being forced to eat turnips change this attitude? Do people eat turnips or did it go back to being animal food as soon as the blockade ended?
So you don’t like polenta then?
As an American, I find most of those foods gross. I am always shocked that adults like American cheese or funky casseroles. I would have starved in the US in the 50s. It was nasty.
There’s actually a pretty in-depth explanation of grits and polenta on this website and the types of corn and grinding process used to produce each. I like both grits and polenta, but they taste and feel quite different to me, and I could see how someone would like one and not the other, especially in the case of hominy grits, which is the type of grits I’m most familiar with.
There are some Chinese restaurants in America that look at you funny if you ask for ice water. It’s just not done. Bad for the chi. Bad for digestion.
The issue is not that there aren’t any differences between them, it’s that we often see grits dismissed contemptuously (usually without ever actually trying them) by people who seem to have no such problem with polenta. Perhaps the extra syllables disguise the fact that they are also eating cornmeal mush, but I suspect it has more to do with regional stereotyping. The disgust sometimes directed at grits strikes me as rather over-the top for a dish that’s basically a fairly bland porridge.
I have no idea if sandra_nz, who triggered this tangent, has tried grits, so this may not apply to her. It’s the reason for the “polenta” comebacks to grits-dissing in general, though.
I have had polenta. I haven’t had grits. When I have had polenta, it’s generally been ‘shaped’ and pan-fried(?) with some flavourings. I have only ever seen pictures of 'grit’s looking like porridge in a bowl.
Grits might taste fantastic. But a bowl of grits looks ugly to me, not appetising.
I’ll grant you, just plain grits are not good eating. But absolutely nobody I ever seen eats them that way. I hit them with butter, salt, pepper, butter, hot sauce and butter when I eat them.
I remember my high school German teacher saying that ice was not usually (ever?) served with soft drinks in Germany… this would have been in the 1970s through the 80s timeframe.
It is porridge, and, as silenus explains, it is meant to be treated as a blank canvas. You adjust the flavor to suit you by adding seasonings and other ingredients.
Do you have a visual aversion to other porridges? Oatmeal is uglier, if anything, but I seldom hear any particular disgust directed at it. At least, not by anyone who hasn’t tried it.
Heheh, I love that you are all trying to convince me of the merits of grits. 
I’ll be in Texas later this year, maybe I’ll try some!
I went to college in the northwest, and we went on a multi-day field trip. During the field trip different groups of students were responsible for cooking different meals. A bunch of us transplanted Southerners got together and promised everyone cheese grits for breakfast one morning.
We were roundly mocked by our classmates.
Then they tried them.
There were no leftovers.
I’ve eaten it when it was made by that recipe and wasn’t crazy about it. The recipe that’s been passed down in my family for at least a couple of generations uses french cut green beans and real onion rings rather than those dried crunchy things. That’s the only way I ever knew it until I saw other people following your recipe. I think Campbells must have an interest in French’s fried onions so their marketing department put out this abomination of a recipe. I have no idea why they don’t specify the french cut beans but it makes a bigger difference than you’d think.