And I was very pissed off when an Italian in South Africa insisted that the "Mealie Pap" the African folk eat as a staple of their diet , and most white South African serve at their Braais - was introduced into South Africa by the ITALIANS!

(Did the Italian housewives also, +-500 years ago, grind their maize using a pole and a hollow rock?)

I do stand to be corrected on the above, but the Africans have been tilling their (white) maize fields since time immemorial. And Italian polento is yellow.

People in the US thought *I* was crazy and said that maybe I wasn't a "real Italian" when I told them I had never heard of Alfredo sauce before setting foot in the Land of the Free - quite funny (by the way, Alfredo sauce is awesome)

Yum...

It's POLENTA, but otherwise I agree with you - yellow corn, the cheapest of the cheapest for people who could not afford bread and/or white corn (more fancy). Had a similar discussion with some Chinese friends about who invented the noodles/spaghetti. I don't care who invented it - if it's tasty, I'll eat it

Not before 1492 they didn't, as it's only native to the Americas.

And Italian polenta can also be white, red, bluish grey, or black. I have all of the above in my cupboard, although the black polenta is made from buckwheat and not corn. White polenta is usually eaten with fish.

Tom