Vietnamese Grits

This morning I woke up wondering what to make for breakfast. With only random bites of holiday leftovers left in the house, I would need to be creative if I did not want to have Czech Christmas cookies, the last sliver of pecan pie, and cranberry salsa for breakfast.

I decided on making something with grits. Now, growing up in North Texas, grits were not a staple. I have friends from the Houston area who seem to be lifelong fans, but I was introduced to grits fairly late in life. These days, grits are even available in some rather high end restaurants in Texas, as evidenced by this Wide Open Country blog post: http://www.wideopencountry.com/best-grits-in-texas/

So I decided to try my hand at a grits-pho combo. Yes, I opted to make Vietnamese-inspired grits. I doused the grits in lime juice. I added garlic and soy sauce. I diced a chili pepper that came from my brother-in-law's garden. Then, since I lacked shrimp, I added fake crab meat (which my wife said was a mistake). And I topped it all off with the remaining cilantro and green onions from the refrigerator. 

The results were promising, though I am not quite ready to share a recipe. Let's just say that the recipe is still in the prototype stage. About the time I started feeling like a groundbreaking culinary innovator, I googled "Vietnamese grits" and, voila, there was a recipe. Verily, Sir Francis Bacon was right. There is nothing new under the sun.

If you are curious, here is the recipe I found online. I have not tried it, but I will try Vietnamese grits again soon using a variant of this recipe.

http://thecraftingboard.com/2016/10/01/vietnamese-style-shrimp-grits/