10 more foods that make America great

Shrimp and grits
There is no artifice in shrimp and grits, the simplest of simple dishes and yet inseparably tied to the heart of Low Country cooking.  At times it's merely known as “breakfast shrimp,” a sign of its original purpose.

Alexandra Grablewski / PictureArts Shrimp and grits — you can make it look fancy, you can make it look plain. It's equally delicious.

The idea couldn't be more straightforward: shrimp, briefly sauteed, atop a pile of freshly cooked grits. (Which is to say: not instant, not if you can avoid it.) Other tidbits can find their way in: mushroom or peppers or even tomatoes. But really, this is about good grits — a foodstuff that's deceptively easy to cook and deceptively hard to cook well. Nailing that creamy-but-not-mushy texture is a bit of Southern wizardry.

Several chefs have staked reputations on their interpretations, perhaps none more so than Bill Neal, whose Chapel Hill, N.C., restaurant Crook's Corner was all but defined by his popular shrimp and grits. The dish has earned enough fame to warrant an entire cookbook on the topic by food writer Nathalie Dupree.

But if fancy versions can be found on the tables of Charleston and Savannah, and even farther afield, it's ultimately still food that hearkens back to coastal kitchens, where fishing families would eat what was available. Any dish that can be both fancy and down-home is worthy of love.