Had a speaker from Wisconsin in the Ozarks a few years back. He made the statement in his introductory remarks that he knew he was in the south when he saw grits on the menu. I told him afterwards that he was in the south when he found grits on his plate not on the menu. Some of the border states accomodate visitors from the north, by placing grits on the menu, but in the deeper south, at least it used to be true, restaurants simply served grits with breakfast and saw no need to place them (it)on the menu.

As for country ham, I grew up in Southampton County, Virginia and dined on country ham with some regularity. My father and his brothers cured their own hams and supplied my mother's family with ham. I did not have to eat Smithfield ham or any other storebought ham until well into adulthood. Having had my taste for commercially cured ham forever ruined, I rarely take a chance on it anymore. My ancestral ham curers are all gone and not a one of my generation took up the art. Are Peanut fed hogs are a things of the past.