Grits

Hi there, I was hoping that someone could help me with finding a couple of American food items at a reasonable price. My grandfather recently died, and he had spent my childhood imparting particular tastes for things such as grits.

Whether instant or from scratch, would anyone please be able to suggest the best (and cheapest) way to be able to have these in the UK? I hope there isn't already a thread about this, at least I couldn't see one!

Other products would include Nilla Wafers and liquid coffee creamers - I'm not sure if the latter is a possibility because of the weight, but if only it weren't so expensive!

Thank you so much for your time and help, this site has been great for finding things that are missing from our lives!

http://www.americansweets.co.uk/

Thanks for asking that question, Peach!  I was born and raised (and currently live) in Florida, where grits are a staple of our cuisine (well, mine anyways).  When I moved to Scotland the first time, I had my Mom ship me some but since she's now deceased, I'm trying to figure out how to get my hands on grits when I move back in August.  I'm sure my suitcase will have quite a few boxes, but that won't last long.  Maybe I can coerce friends to send grits in bulk! 

DW likes grits (I can't stand them!) but she just brings some back when we've visited the US although she only rarely eats them so it's not an issue.

They are an acquired taste thing I guess. I hated them forever but now love them. You folks who don't like them, unless you don't like the corn taste, try doing different things with them as they are very versatile! You can sweeten them, or mix all manner of spices with them, sour cream etc.

I love grits.........must come from the southern part of the family.......

I love grits.  The sell them at a couple local shops here (one is the food section of the local House of Fraser, but I think that was started when they were Howells, a local dept store).  I don't get them though because they are the instant packs and I don't like them as much, so I have friends bring packages over when they visit.

don't forget grits and shrimp.....many recipes on-line. <<<yum>>>

I had a friend bring a bag of grits and a bag of cornmeal - both purchased from Whole Foods. I love grits with pepper and butter....savoury, not sweet. Too many people get off to a bad start by being served instant grits, or thin, watery grits in a restaurant. Great comfort food if properly prepared.

Oh my, grits and shrimp! That would be wonderful.

People have different preferences on the thickness. This is another reason they should try grits more than once to make it as they might enjoy it.

Thank you all for your help! Personally, I love them with cheese, egg, ham, sausage or bacon. With lots of gravy, of course. Never tried it with shrimp though, so I shall put that on my to-do list!

I had a friend bring a bag of grits and a bag of cornmeal - both purchased from Whole Foods. I love grits with pepper and butter....savoury, not sweet. Too many people get off to a bad start by being served instant grits, or thin, watery grits in a restaurant. Great comfort food if properly prepared.

But there's not trouble finding cornmeal here.  Just look for polenta.  It's exactly the same, although I did see a bag called cornmeal in ASDA the other day. You can choose your thickness.  I prefer the coarse stuff.

You can buy instant grits from Amazon UK.

My bag of grits from Whole Foods say that is is a substitute for polenta, but the cornmeal - same brand - just says 'cornmeal'. The grits my friend brought from Whole Foods is from yellow corn, and frankly don't taste the same as my old standby - Quaker Oats long cooking grits. It's what you get used to, but good old white grits are what I like!

I personally can't stand the instant grits, but I have been know to eat them as a sort of last resort when it's the best of a batch of bad choices on a hotel breakfast bar.

My experience with polenta is not fantastic, but I suspect it depends on the brand, coarseness of the grind etc.

For now I do have my little stash!

My experience with polenta is not fantastic, but I suspect it depends on the brand, coarseness of the grind etc.

For now I do have my little stash!

I think you got the trick here--it's just about finding the right thickness.  I sometimes have to look in more than one store to get good coarse stuff for gritty cornbread, but I haven't had trouble finding it eventually.  I just don't always find the coarse stuff in some stores.