Grits and ice cream
The other day, I ordered grits. Normally, I don’t, because in the South grits have to be buttery — perhaps even cheesy — and I try to remind myself that I want to enjoy fresh-tasting food, not rich and unctuous food.
But at the Flying Biscuit Cafe, I couldn’t help myself. I glanced at the menu and saw the description for the Breakfast Bowl there.
Two oven fried green tomatoes, crisp turkey bacon and two over medium eggs served atop a bowl of our award-winning creamy dreamy grits and topped with a warm homemade red salsa.
I was all:
Of course, the grits were delicious, and I’m not here to say the whole dish failed, but at a certain point, there is little reason to use turkey bacon. You don’t use the substitute for pig when you’ve already dumped a stick of butter and a handful of cheese onto my plate. I like turkey bacon quite a bit, but it simply doesn’t crisp up the way pork bacon does, nor do most varieties have the right kind of smoky saltiness that makes this kind of dish.
I mean, we had the “fried” green tomatoes and the salsa providing acid, the buttery grits and eggs providing richness, and what it needed was some real bacon to bring it all home. But I guess they were going for the traditional Southern grits presentation, which doubles down on fried-n-buttery.
And that’s fine! Grits’ up-market cousin, polenta, often comes with the same presentation, only with more solid texture.
Of course, because I’d already succumbed to indulgence, I gave in again immediately afterward and trotted a few steps away to Va da Vie Gelato, where I got a fascinating combination of ice cream flavors. What you see below is one-half banana ice cream and the other half avocado-honey-orange.
The banana was fantastic. I thought I might regret getting it because I’m a big-time chocolate guy, but there was no way I was going to get chocolate paired with avocado, and it turned out the banana far exceeded my expectations.
The avocado did not. Perhaps it’s because I have fond memories eating straight-up avocado ice cream from Mitchell’s in San Francisco, and because I’ve made my own damn good avocado ice cream, but this version didn’t quite work for me.
I think it’s because the orange overwhelmed everything else, and I simply didn’t get that distinct avocado flavor, nor did I get a sense that I was eating something specifically honey-flavored and not just sweet. The orange was tasty enough! But it was disappointing to miss out on the promised avocado, and slightly disconcerting to eat green ice cream that tastes like orange.
This was all approximately in the 1 o’clock hour, and I ended up not eating for the rest of the day. That’ll happen when you fill up on grits and ice cream.
