Grits!

Grits!

I thank God that I grew up with a Grandmother who knew how to cook grits! To me, grits with my bacon and eggs are about as essential as food gets.

Since I moved to Texas all those years ago, I find it sometimes difficult to find a restaurant that can cook grits. Sometimes, when I ask for grits, the waiter will look at me with a blank stare. If the waiter tells me that they do not serve grits, I get up and leave! Often they serve me with a thin whitish gruel that looks like some sort of soup. They bring me a spoon because the "grits" are too watery to stay on my fork! These same restaurants think nothing at all of serving greasy potatoes hashed and fried into inedible patties, but if you ask for grits they treat you like some sort of weird character!

Grits are simply ground field corn so there is no reason that they should be difficult to find, especially in Texas. In the early days of Texas, corn and pork were the primary food groups! Chickens were decimated by coyotes and other varments. Cattle were used to pull carts and for milk. Wheat had to be imported because it did not do well in the parts of Texas that were settled. That left pigs, that could hold their own against predators, and corn, which would grow well in the area. The result was that practically every middlin' sized creek and river had a grist mill where Texas farmers, would take their corn to be ground into their year's supply of cornmeal and grits.

Bigfoot Wallace

J. Frank Dobie tells a wonderful tale about Bigfoot Wallace. It seems that Wallace's appetite was as legendary as the man himself. According to Dobie, a family was celebrating the marriage of their daughter. As a special treat for her guests, the bride's mother had ordered wheat flour which was rare in Texas. The mother was particularly proud of her cooking skills and, in addition to the bread she had baked from the expensive wheat, the centerpiece of the wedding meal was to be a delicious yellow cake.

Now, in early Texas, hospitality called for inviting any travelers who came along to join in the meal. Bigfoot Wallace happened to be traveling through and so he was invited. As the meal progressed, Bigfoot kept getting seconds on her special yellow cake. The bride's mother became increasingly alarmed at the amount of cake that Bigfoot was putting away! She said to Bigfoot, "Mr. Wallace, wouldn't you like some of this bread?", as she passed him a tray of her white bread, also baked with the specially ordered flour. Bigfoot's answer was, "No'mam, this old yeller bread is plenty good enough for me!".

 I sometimes think that I would like to open a restaurant. I would name it "Grits!" and every dish I served would have something to do with grits.