Despite growing up in central South Carolina, only 100 miles or so up the road from Charleston and that graceful Spanish moss of the Low Country, I never ate shrimp and grits. Never heard of shrimp and grits. Closest thing I saw to it was scrambled eggs and grits, and I couldn't bear to look at that, much less eat it.

        I ate grits all the time, usually with bacon or sausage or topped with tomato gravy. I only ate shrimp fried or boiled with cocktail sauce. Shrimp and grits never made the same plate at my house.

        Now, of course, shrimp and grits are all the rage. It's one of those classic American regional dishes — like gumbo and jambalaya — chefs in and out of the South are playing with. Kristy Schalk of the Tousey House in Burlington serves pan-seared, bourbon-marinated shrimp and cheddar cheese grits, and it's her most popular menu item — hundreds of miles away from the Low Country.

        In Charleston, the unofficial capital of shrimp and grits, chefs use the old dish as a canvas for improvisation. They add ingredients such as vodka, vermouth, tomato juice, tasso ham, all kinds of mushrooms and usually cheese. At the swanky Cypress Grill there, the kitchen turns out an over-the-top appetizer of cheese grits, shrimp, scallops and lobster meat drizzled with white truffle oil.

        All this creative fuss over a pedestrian dish once called “breakfast shrimp,” probably concocted by Low Country fishermen who couldn't afford bacon with their grits. Shrimp were cheap and available.

HOMINY GRILL

• 207 Rutledge Ave.   • Charleston, S.C.   • (843) 937-0930   • www.hominygrill.com

        Although it would be difficult (and probably dangerous) to name the best shrimp and grits in Charleston, Robert Stehling's version at the Hominy Grill (fittingly, considering the restaurant's name) has to be near the top. And probably not coincidentally, his is also one of the most simple.

        “The less you do with good food, usually the better,” says Mr. Stehling, who never heard of shrimp and grits while growing up near Greensboro, N.C.

        It didn't take him long to figure out people love the comforting combination. While working at Crooks's Corner Restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C., in the mid-1980s, as many as 70 percent of the dinner orders would be shrimp and grits on a good night. When Mr. Stehling moved on to New York in the late '80s, he introduced shrimp and grits to Yankees, many of whom didn't know what a “grit” was. In Charleston, it is still one of his most popular dishes.

        He sautes mushrooms and scallions in peanut oil with a little bacon fat for flavor, then quickly cooks the shrimp in the sauce and serves it over grits spiked with grated cheddar and Parmesan. Mr. Stehling finishes the shrimp and grits with a squeeze of lemon juice, dash of Tabasco and sprinkle of crumbled bacon.

        As uncomplicated as that sounds, when he first served his shrimp and grits at Hominy Grill in 1996, a few Charlestonians didn't hesitate to tell him it wasn't the “right way.”

        “The old way was to probably saute shrimp, add a little milk or water for gravy and serve it over grits,” he says.

        That was the basic recipe used by fishermen and dockside diners. No self-respecting Charleston restaurants would've put shrimp and grits on the menu, which is why few people outside the Low Country appreciated it. It required “discovery” by American chefs like Mr. Stehling before shrimp and grits earned a place on the menu.

        There probably are other old Carolina dishes out there waiting for their time in the limelight. Maybe even scrambled eggs and shrimp, or grits and tomato gravy.

Shrimp and Grits
        3 tablespoons butter, peanut oil or bacon fat, or combination
        1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced thinly
        1 bunch scallions, diced (white and green parts)
        Salt and pepper, to taste

| ZOOM |

        1 tablespoon flour
        1 pound peeled and deveined shrimp
        1 cup warm chicken or shrimp stock
        Juice of 1/2 lemon
        Tabasco sauce, to taste
        Prepared plain or cheese grits, divided into 4 portions
        Crumbled bacon (optional)

        Saute sliced mushrooms in butter or oil over medium-high heat until they soften and release their juices, 2 to 4 minutes. Add diced scallions, salt and pepper to taste and stir. Sprinkle flour over vegetables and stir briskly. Add shrimp and cook quickly until they begin to turn opaque. Add warm stock, stir and simmer a few minutes until sauce begins to reduce and thicken.
        Remove shrimp from heat and stir in lemon juice and Tabasco, to taste. Ladle shrimp and sauce over grits and sprinkle bacon over each serving. Makes 4 servings.

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