The term creamy grits, when found on the menu of a Lowcountry restaurant, is not adjectival fancy. Creamy grits are to ordinary grits what chocolate mousse is to chocolate milk. Instead of being made with water like the pale, ground-corn cereal so often served as a breakfast nonentity in diners throughout the South, creamy grits are cooked long and slow with plenty of butter and milk or cream, resulting in pale ochre grain that is smooth, dense, and luscious. While they are sometimes served at breakfast, creamy grits’ supreme destiny is to occupy a dinner plate as bedding for a school of barbecued shrimp, ham, or sausage.
A Lowcountry classic at the Old Post Office restaurant on Edisto Island: shrimp and creamy grits.