True Grits

Sometimes you have to wonder if the specialty, ethnic, high price products in the super are really any better than their lowbrow domestic cousins. This thought runs through my mind every time I buy olive oil, and canned tomatoes. Are the prized San Marzano canned tomatoes really worth it? Will I feel transported to the remote corner of Italy they’re grown in? Will I taste 2000-year-old volcanic dust in them? Same goes for grits. As a transplanted Yankee, I’ve embraced the south, and buy stone-ground local grits whenever I get a chance—usually at the farmers market. But while taste testing a shrimp and grits dish for the May issue, we had the best grits ever. They were made with Dixie Lily White Pearl Hominy Grits found at of all places, the local Publix store for $3.47 a bag. Sometimes, maybe most times, price isn’t an indicator of quality.