The finest kitchen in the Bywater continues putting out New Orleans soul food classics. On a recent morning I got up bright and early and boiled up a kettle of grits while I fired my cast-iron skillet until she was good and hot.
Grillades and grits used to be common on New Orleans menus but not anymore. If you want the really good ones I hope you’re friends with a chef or are handy in the kitchen yourself as that’s about the only way you’re going to get a good plate of them.
These grillades are my favorites: blackened pork belly and the grits came from Tennessee where I bought them at Allen Benton’s old smokehouse in Madisonville.