A few days before I left Australia, I was out shopping buying parting gifts for friends and family. I had a conversation with a girl in one of the shops about my trip and where I was headed to. When I mentioned the South, she said that she had a word of advice: when it came to grits, run.

I've still never had grits. But I wonder what that girl would think if she knew that the horror of her trip to the US now exists in individual pouches.