The other day I was cleaning off some shelves and pulled down the obligatory grits (obligatory in my house).
For some reason, I looked at the expiration date, and it was 1996. I was astounded. I haven't made grits often in recent years, but I know it hasn't been that long since the last time. ...
Had I been poisoning my family? Would they be full of bugs? I threw them away without (shudder) opening them.
In my family, grits aren't a cereal. If you have them for breakfast, you have them with butter, salt and freshly ground pepper with eggs and crisp bacon. You might have them for a starch at night with a slice of ham. (When did we last have ham?)
Anyway, since then I'm seeing them on every restaurant menu -- or at least it seems that way. Are grits the new trendy food?
We had grits at Mr. Rain's Fun House in the American Visionary Art Museum with shrimp, pheasant sausage and kale. I see from Suzanne's In Good Taste blog that the new Langermann's in the Can Co. will feature grits on its southern-style menu.
And it goes without saying, of course, that you'll find them at Charleston.
By the way, when I was writing this I couldn't think of the word for the cardboard cylinder grits and oatmeal come in. Box doesn't seem right, or container, or carton. Is there a word?
(Tasha Treadwell/Sun photographer)