It all grows on a stalk

I had polenta for the first time at the fancy pants restaurant we went to for Hubs' birthday. It was billed as a creamy polenta and it was delicious and creamy and just a small side of yum. So yummy, in fact, that I forget what I had as my main dish.

So imagine my delight when, a few days later, I come across a recipe for creamy polenta! It looks easy enough, I add polenta to my grocery list, and don't give it another thought. Until I'm at the grocery store, faced with a bag labeled "corn grits/ polenta".

What? I turn the bag around and the ingredients are "yellow corn" but the recipe is for Italian Polenta. Huh, I think, how is this different from white corn grits?

See, I know grits. I grew up eating them with a fried egg and lots of salt. I love them and usually have a box of grits in my pantry. And as far as I could tell in the store, the only difference was the polenta was yellow and grits were white. But it's all still corn.

Feeling like I'm falling for the greatest corn product scam ever, I buy the bag of "corn grits/ polenta", curious to see what the difference is when I cook it. Beside the obvious corn color.

So tonight, I cook up some creamy polenta. And it's divine. Not quite as creamy or divine as the fancy pants restaurant, which is good I guess since conceivably the person who cooked the fancy pants polenta has attended chef school. And I've only taken a few classes from the co-op and watched a few Rachel Ray episodes. None of which covered polenta.

Anyway. As far as I can tell, the polenta is yellow, and ground a little finer, and is eaten with tomato sauce or cooked with milk and cheese. And grits, when cooked the Southern way I know and love, is white, and served with a fried egg and salt. Other than that, it all tastes like corn.

But it's probably kind of tacky to list "grits" as a side at a fancy pants restaurant in California.