🗓️ September 2: World 🌴Coconut 🥥 Day & “Grits Day” (aka Eat Grits for Breakfast Day)
If like me you happen to have booth grits and some form of coconut (milk, oil, water, shredded flakes…) in your kitchen today — or any day —then you’re in for a tasty comfort food treat — hese two ingredients go great together! …
I found this out thanks to a local spot in my Brooklyn neighborhood called Wangs (tagline: Asian + Soul Food) — and it’s not only one of a few places nearby with grits on the menu but also the only place I’d ever seen that serves grits prepared with coconut — with coconut milk and scallion butter to be precise— and the result is lovely. So much so I’ve since been inspired to often prepare my grits with coconut too (e.g., coconut oil, or milk, or shavings — sometimes all of the above lol + topped with a sprinkling of finely diced green onion)…
I suppose you COULD come up with a sweet version too — considering there’s a whole camp of folks who put sugar (and milk?) in their grits (gag!) instead of salt & butter (that is, the RIGHT way 😁) — and since coconut is one of those foodstuffs that can swing sweet or salty too….
Either way, If you’re in the mood for accessible yet adventurous comfort food to celebrate today's symbiotic food 'holidays', get your ingredients together to try out a variation of this delish combo for yourself:
Grits + Coconut = a soulful, unexpected, and delicious combination.
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above is a pic of a coconut vendor pop-up stand during one of the all-day 5th ave street fairs that take place in my Brooklyn neighborhood a couple of times each year….
• 🌽 Today’s other food holiday is officially called “Eat Grits for Breakfast Day”, but I’m just calling it Grits Day — because real stone-ground grits are good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner — as a substantive side dish or as the base for a Southern style main (a la shrimp & grits or a savory grits casserole layered with lots of other stuff) . More than just comfort food, grits carry deep culinary and cultural roots from Indigenous foodways to African-American traditions from across the Atlantic into the Americas — particularly in the Southern region of North America and later many US urban, suburban and rural areas as a result of the dramatic demographic shift of Black Americans as a result of the Great Migration (1910-1970).
✨ Want to dig deeper into the real grits story? That’s exactly the kind of content I share on Patreon— so come join me there!
in the meantime: Have A Happy Grits 🥣 Day and World 🌴 Coconut 🥥 Day!
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