You can also get white polenta as well as yellow. I’ve never studied the intricacies of it, it isn’t that common here, we don’t grow a lot of corn locally, it’s imported.
The recipe I mentioned before is called “grillades and grits”, it’s a type of stew on top of the grits. Looks tasty
Twinkies are just sponge cake with a vanilla “cream” filling (which I think is aerated lard). MUCH sweeter now than when I was a kid, SFAICT.
When they first came out in 1930, they had banana filling, but that changed during WWII.
I see they’ve reintroduced the banana filling, but I haven’t seen them yet. The cakes are actually not bad, so long as you dig out most of the filling.
It’s definitely an acquired taste. For years, I hated beets—I thought they taste like dirt! After having them in Russian salads, finely grated and mixed with sour cream, I can eat them—and, of course, in borscht.
When I make it, it’s usually rustic, with chunks of veg. My ex, who is Russian, grates the veg so they largely dissolve as the soup cooks.
In Moscow a couple of years ago, I tried making it with a brand of “health juice” at my local supermarket—basically a liquified blend of beets, carrots, and other veg. It was good! :o
Probably grits and shrimp. That’s a common combination in Louisiana.
A delicious, delicious common combination. 
It’s that filling that looks unappetising to me, it’s unearthly white, doesn’t look like food at all. I’m not much of a sweet tooth, so there’s that as another “disincentive” to try that type of thing. I don’t mind Reece’s peanut butter cups, even though the peanut butter filling is very sweet and we’ve got Krispy Kreme donuts here now, and occasionally I don’t mind gutsing on those, despite their unbelievable sweetness.
I don’t like shrimp (prawns) so a lot of the recipes in the book aren’t appealing to me.
If you’ve ever had cullen skink, then clam chowder is in the same general area -just with clams instead of smoked haddock.
You might change your mind if you ever try Shrimp Creole. It is to die for! :o
Polish borscht is typically based on a beef stock (or a smoked pork stock, based on smoked ribs, hocks, etc.). For Christmas eve, though, we do a vegetarian version, as no meat (except for fish) is served on that day for wigilia, the Polish Christmas eve dinner. In that case, we serve the clear bortscht with mushroom-stuffed tortellini (the uszka I mentioned before).
But, otherwise, assume it’s based on meat unless otherwise informed.
And, yes, there’s white borscht, and that’s a soup based on soured ryemeal/grains (and one of my favorite soups in the whole world.)
Interesting. I’m going to have to try that. There’s a grocery store by me that sells various types and/or brands of kvass (I never looked really closely, but they have part of a shelf devoted to them.)
I’ve always thought of Moonpies as a Southern thing, since I had never heard of them until I started spending summers in West Virginia with my dad. A Moonpie is two soft “graham cracker” cookies (they always seemed more like gingerbread to me) with a layer of marshmallow in between, and covered with chocolate coating. They’re okay, but I was never big on them.
I liked eating them in combination with Yoo-Hoo, another thing I never saw until I was in West Virginia.
http://www.americanfoodroots.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/state-tn.jpeg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tR2b1-XkUDE/hqdefault.jpg
The thing about Yoo-Hoo is that it doesn’t need to be refrigerated, like chocolate milk. It’s classified as a soft drink, though it isn’t fizzy.
There’s a drink I haven’t thought about for awhile. It used to be in the vending machine in the lunchroom at my high school here in Chicago. I’m pretty sure they still sell it, and I may have bought it a few years ago here. I didn’t realize it was regional.
oh thanks. We have something similar here called a “wagon wheel”, but the biscuit (cookie) isn’t soft and there’s jam in the middle, too, as well as the marshmallow. https://www.arnotts.com.au/products/wagon-wheels/
I’ve eaten a prawn relatively recently. It wasn’t horrible, but it didn’t really taste like anything. They are expensive, and it’d be a complete waste of money to buy them to stick in a stew/sauce and plain I’d rather a hunk of cheese… shrug. Looking up the sauce, I’d just as soon use pasta, it would taste about the same to me 
I had to laugh reading the post in your link. When I was a grad student in Moscow (1989–90), I wanted to make pizza for my friends one weekend. We hit the hard currency stores for tomato paste, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, et cetera. Didn’t bother buying any yeast, because I was assured there was some at the apartment where I’d be cooking.
Got there Saturday afternoon, and nope, there was no yeast: “Defitsit.” So I went back downtown in the middle of a blizzard to look for yeast. Finally, after traipsing around for a couple of hours, I found some at the *beryozka *near the Belorusskaya metro station; by this time, I had a splitting headache from sweating inside my shapka.
I gathered as many packets as I could afford and got into line. When I got to the cashier, she said “Sorry, this is a store for diplomats. We don’t accept hard currency, just diplomatic chits.”
I finally gave up and went back to the apartment (a good 45 minute journey) to make the pizza. It turned out alright, though the crust was pretty crunchy.
A day to remember!
I thought “grillades”was just the Creole term for quick-fried cutlets, no gravy to go alongside. Dry cutlets would be yummy with buttered grits, but braised shrimp and its sauce would be better.
Shrimp n’ grits is really more of a Low Country dish (Charleston, Savannah, Beaufort, and surrounding area) than New Orleans.
I guess it’s marketed across the US now (it was invented in New Jersey, but the first bottling plant was in South Carolina). I don’t know how widespread it was 50 years ago, just that I had never seen it in Minnesota.
Okay, I wikied and see that grillades are commonly made with a gravy these days.
My previous knowledge was gleaned from The Picayune Creole Cookbook (1899), still in print from Dover Books and worth owning.
Apparently, it’s the name for the “hunks of meat” but the recipe itself is a type of stew, served with grits. https://www.daringgourmet.com/new-orleans-grillades-and-grits/
Of course not:
“Those fish are swimmin’ in their own toilet!”
—Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner)
and
“I never drink water. Fish fuck in it.”
—WC Fields