Vittles

My darling bride made one of my favorite meals for me Sunday night.

Shrimp n' Grits. Being from the hills, I'd never heard of such a combination until we visited Charleston on our honeymoon. She wanted to go eat a Hyman's Seafood and I wasn't real keen on it, but since it was our honeymoon, we went anyway.

I wasn't in a "fishy" mood was my primary reason for not wanting to go. I'm more of a beef eatin' carnivore most of the time, but I will eat shrimp at every opportunity. I saw Shrimp and Grits on the menu and thought I'd try it. And it turned out to be pretty doggone good. If memory serves, it was a bowl of grits with shrimp floating in it, covered with gravy. Gravy which my bride insists is NOT "gravy," but "sauce." What's the difference? It's gravy to me.

Anyhow, the next day we rode out to Isle of Palms (or Pile of Lambs, which is how my bride referred to it) so that she could show me her old house and to eat lunch. I do not recall the name of the resturant, but it was right on the beach.

I saw that this place also had shrimp and grits on the menu, so I decided I'd like to try it again, since I'm not one to be very adventurous with food when I'm traveling.

I called the office and harrassed everyone while waiting on my food, just to be obnoxious. I'm good at that sort of thing.

I was in for a surprise when they brought out my plate. This was nothing like what I'd eaten at Hyman's. This was a slab of grits made into a cake and fried, covered in shrimp and more of that pepper gravy. When I commenced to cutting on it, I discovered this whole glorious mess was perched upon a thick piece of good ole' salty country ham. I had never before heard of any such combination and commenced to begging my bride (who is, in case I've never mentioned it, an excellent cook) to learn how to make it.

After we got home, she did some studying and was able to replicate this dish on her first try. Now, about once or twice a year, provided I'm a good boy, she'll make it for me. Which is more than I can say for some of the other foods I dearly love

She wanted me to invite Jeff (a good friend of mine) and DR over to eat with me, but I talked her out of it. Such a meal I said, would be wasted on those two tasteless reprobates. After all, both are middle-aged batchelors and will eat just about anything that doesn't eat them first, so fine cuisine is a waste of time with them.

Have I ever mentioned I've watched (with great revulsion) DR eat cold Van Camp's chili straight out of the can?

I finally relented and invited Jeff over, I couldn't raise DR on the phone, so he missed out. I'll get him over the next time we have a big feed, along with a few others. I need to be sure and have a tape recorder handy though.