Close call

[chet]

Da wife and I stopped for some breakfast on our way back north this mornin' on Hwy 10 just a little south and west of Jeff's and Tammy's place. After a quick glance at da menu I ordered da hungry man breakfast. As usual ya get choices, how ya want yer eggs, sausage or bacon, kind of toast. But then I git asked taters or grits.    Now dat's a first, I ain't never been asked if wanted dat stuff before. I had ta take a quick look around ta make sure dar weren't no smilin' southern forum member laughin' at da next table.  :D

[tnlogger]

 now chet ya'll knows dem are northen GritS so you woulda been safe ta eat um.

It take a true southern gentleman ta eats real GritS  :D :D :D :D :D :D

[DanG]

It just goes to show ya, Chet.  Culture is coming to your part of the world, whether you like it or not.  At least they asked...down here, they just bring the grits.  That works for me. ;D :D :D

[sandman2234]

Probably those instant grits anyway. He still don't know what real grits taste like.
   David from jax

[chet]

Dat der waitress musta thought I didn't look southern enough, so she had better double check first.  :D

[chet]

Even if she wooda just brung um, I wouldn't have had a clue.  ???  Ain't never seen um before.  ;D

[Jeff]

They follered me home!

[maple flats]

can't ya send them back south Jeff? 8)

[Jeff]

If they taste like the last ones Tom made for me I'll keep em. If they taste like all the other times, they'll go back by themselves.

[sawguy21]

 :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[CHARLIE]

It could be that the restaurant decided to upgrade their menu and hired a Southern cook.  A Southern cook knows that ya can't have a real breakfast without grits. ;D 8)   Maybe da restaurant decided to start offerin' gourmet items. ;D

[getoverit]

them Grits will put lead in your pencil..... if you can find somebody to write to  :D

[crtreedude]

See - it is what I said, Grits are Yankee Food.

CRTreeDude - from the DEEP south....

Down here, everyone up there is a Yankee...  ;D

You'll be safe down here Jeff.

[Kirk_Allen]

If they taste like the last ones Tom made for me I'll keep em. If they taste like all the other times, they'll go back by themselves.

I think that is an official acknowledgment that the Boss likes GRITS  8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

[crtreedude]

Boss - don't go to that bad place.

I will correct something here, the Ticos like Grits, why, just the other day I saw someone using them for soaking up oil in a garage...  ;)

[shopteacher]

Jeff, you telling me you didn't like them instant grits I sent ya?  Man, I carried the all the way from Richmond, Va. 

[Jeff]

Those instant grits is somewhere, someplace, with several forum member signatures on the box. I dont know who has em right now. But they will show up I imagine, somwhere somehow, when you least expect them to.

I won't go as far as to say I like grits in a blanket statement. I will go as far to say that I REALLY liked the grits Tom made for and afternoon breakfast for DanG and Woodlbowl and I.  I actually asked for more and they was all gone. And when I asked if we could have em again before I left we didnt have time.

I got an idea there is good grits and bad grits and those southern gentlemen have some sort of plan to keep us from getting the good ones but getting us to eat up all the bad ones.

[Texas Ranger]

Hey, big guy, how much weight did ya gain eatin off Tom's table?

[Jeff]

I gained some for sure.

[dundee]

Having read this thread on "GRITS"------what are grits? (as a matter of interest)----see, I am learning new words here, like "WHACK OF"  "GRITS", when I get to the States again should I order a "WHACK of GRITS"

just wondering !!!
Richard

[Minnesota_boy]

I wouldn't recommend ordering a "whack of grits", but I'm not from the southern United States either.  I've eaten them and I can eat them again, but I wouldn't cross the street for them. ;D

[dundee]

Thanks Minnesota---but I still do not know what they are !!!! without offending anyone  ;D whatever they are, the sound of "GRITS" is the stuff we feed to our chooks downunder

[Tom]

Nah!  A whack is a timber measurement here on the forum.  Grits are generally just ordered by the serving.  Most of us in the Southern USA want a "big" serving.  Most of those in the Northern USA don't want a serving at all.  Those in the West will say "Grits?  What is grits".  

That's something to remember if you want to look like you know a little bit about them.  Don't say "Grits is", say "grits are".

Grits are a coarsely ground corn product, generally white corn, that is eaten in the South of the USA.  Usually when you reference the south here, you are talking about the area from Texas to Florida and north Arkansas and Virginia.  This was the Confederacy during the War Between the States which took place from 1860 to 1865.  There are some states immediately to the north that were called "Border States" and even today have citizens who claim to be either Northern or Southern.

Times were tough back then.  It wasn't just the war, it was tough even before that.  Southerners ate many things that weren't common to the rest of the country because they couldn't afford to waste anything.  Grits was one of these things as well as organ meats.  The term used for a pig was that it was all used but for the squeal and that would have been eaten if it could have been caught.

Don't expect to find Grits prepared or served outside of the Southeastern USA.  They are good as a breakfast food and are served with salt and pepper, butter or gravy along with eggs, bacon and sausage.

Grits are also a regional joke, laughed at by most here, where the Southerners tout them and the Northerners loathe them.  You will find many post referring to grits and much conversation explaining them from both sides.

Those who think they should onlyl be used to soak up spilled automobile oil are true northerners.  Those who can't get by a day without a serving are the Southerners.

Google "Grits" and you may be amazed at the importance some place on this regional food.

If you make it over here, come to the south and enjoy Grits, ham hocks, backbone, neckbone and rice, collards, cornbread, sweetened iced tea and buttermilk.  You will be welcomed.

[dundee]

Tom, I thankyou for your concise interpretation of GRITS, actually, they sound OK, I was close when I suggested we feed the stuff to our chooks (corn).

I do intend heading up your way on a couple of matters on the West Coast, I would definatley take a flight to the South and put on my "to-do" list to "rip into" the GRITS

Wonder if Den Socling consumes the stuff????

[SwampDonkey]

It just goes to show ya, Chet.  Culture is coming to your part of the world, whether you like it or not.  At least they asked...down here, they just bring the grits.  That works for me. ;D :D :D

I'm glad I'm too far north for culture. :D :D :D

[crtreedude]

NOW WAIT ONE DANG MINUTE!

Tom, you know for a fact that I am MUCH further south than any of you Northerners!

Fred - in the DEEP South...

[SwampDonkey]

The ham, cornbread and buttermilk we got up noth here to, don't let Tom fool ya. ;D  ;)  8)

My grandmother made butter every week in the summer and sold it along with the buttermilk. I wasn't allowed to churn.  : Grandmother would put grandfather on the end of the churn paddle if he was standing in the middle of the kitchen looking for breakfast. ;D :D Grandmother usually had the butter all churned out and washed and salted and ready to press by daylight. ;) She never sold it at market price, always cheaper and better than store bought. Mother tried it a couple times, but holstein cows that we raised don't make as good a cream as Gernsey or Jersey cows. ;) My uncles last old cow was a 25 year old Jersey, she was like a pet the last 10 years of her life. Kept her around to keep the horse company. The horse never died from work exhaustion either, more to do with kindness. ;)  :D

[TexasTimbers]

Tom, I was gonna go to the grocery store and get some smoked turkey for a sandwich tonight but you made me so hungry for breakfast  I am going to IHOP.I think I'll have two over medium, 4 strips of bacon, 2 sausage links, a short stack of whole grain cakes with maple syrup, and of course a bowl of grits. Hey I wonder if they have grits here in Illinois? I didn't think of that. I'll find out.

dundee - grits is are good. You need some.

Tom it started in 1861 I believe.  ;)

[dundee]

Kevjay----your'e right, I need some, especially after reading Tom's surmation on the history of GRITS, (I enjoyed reading that)

Richard

[Den Socling]

No Richard! I'm too far north to be eatin' grits. But I think my grandfather used to give them to his chickens to aid digestion.  :D But from reading Tom's many post about food, I imagine that he could make even bones and collards taste good.  :D

[tnlogger]

 :D :D Tom ya need so help  ;D

now no one pay any mind ta fred  :D Harolds down there and he'll be covertacated shortly  ;)

Now I had GritS aggs bacon and some skatered smothered and covered this morning but my GritS came looking like and icecream cone I done take it  as giving that fine meal a bad name serving Grits like that
I done had ta mix the aggs and two things of butter just to get em so I could eat um.

Now good stone ground southen grits made the why it should be is a meal fer kings put the butter, salt and pepper to them mmmmmmmmmmm 

[dundee]

Oh !!!!  here we go again !!!! a whack / Grits now here is a new one "SKATERES" TOM, HELP ME OLD SON---WHAT ARE THEY!????   :P--just checked the dictionary nah, nothing on all of the above

I'm learning the lingo you guy's use (we speak english down here)

Richard

[crtreedude]

tnlogger,

Since Harold's Spanish isn't exactly up to snuff yet, I can get away mocking grits to my hearts content. The Ticos think they are for the shop floor right now, they are thinking poor Harold is really poor to be having to eat something like that...  ;D

[TexasTimbers]

I'm learning the lingo you guy's use (we speak english down here)
Richard

No you ain't learnin it. You can't say "you guy's" and spect us to believe you're talkin right. Everyone knows it's "Y'all". Don't ever say "Yoos guys" and stuff like that you'll never get your grits. If you walk into a place that's good enough to serve grits and ask "Do yoos Guys have grits" the waitress might slap you for disrespecting her that way.
So for example when i say "Y'all stop by sometime Richard" that means youreslf and the missus are welcome to come over anytime. I'll have my missus fix you and your missus a bowl of grits.

Y'all stop by sometime Richard.

[dundee]

Thanks Kevjay----my 2x4 or 100x50 (my missus) and I will get up and meet some of "yoos guy's in due course---if I start talking like "yoos guy's" around my house,  my 2x4 will think I am from another planet

[Den Socling]

Richard.
You are getting yourself into some deep doo doo.  ;D if Susan is reading over your shoulder you are going to get smacked, too.  :D
Den

[dundee]

Thanks Den for your concern, Susan ain't in my office and she has her own pc---I am on a learning curve (kerf) here and being educated by "yoos guy's

[TexasTimbers]

Oh boy.  You NZers are as unruly as us Texans. An island of descendants of criminals and a big state full of descnedants of revolutionaries and rebels; man we would not be good for each other.  :D

[dundee]

Excuse me Mr. Kevjay, I am not a Ozzie, a true blue KIWI mate----DEN help!!

[TexasTimbers]

I seen the err of my ways and tried to modify it before you saw it but alas I was not successful. So sorry!

[DanG]

TEXANS!!  The only people on the face of the earth with a mouth big enough to put their feet in...boots and all! ;D

:D :D :D :D :D

[sawguy21]

dundee, here grits are liberal politicians and we are not allowed to eat them ;D

[TexasTimbers]

Go ahead laugh your DanG head off ya rascal!
I think I'll join ya.  :D :D :D

[dundee]

I will bid "yoos" fine gentlemen a peacefull weekend and will touch base next month

Richard

[CHARLIE]

After thinking about Chet finding grits at a restaurant I've finally come to the conclusion:
The civilized world has finally made its way to Michigan! 8) ;D 8)