Mush (maize)

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Mush is a thick cornmeal pudding (or porridge) usually boiled in water or milk. It is often then fried after being cut up into flat squares or rectangles. Usage is especially common in the eastern and southeastern United States. However, a lot of people consume it near the western coastal areas.^{[citation needed]}

It has been considered synonymous, perhaps erroneously, with other dishes:

"Thee the soft nations round the warm Levant

Palanta call, the French of course Polante;

E'en in thy native regions how I blush

To hear the Pennsylvanians call thee Mush!

On Hudson's banks, while men of Belgic spawn

Insult and eat thee by the name suppawn.

All spurious appellations; void of truth:

I've better known thee from my earliest youth,

Thy name is Hasty-Pudding!

(The Hasty-Pudding, Joel Barlow, 1793)