I never really ate too much of this cornmeal dish, but my parents and their grandparents sure did. A lot of poorer folk ate of lot of this because it was fairly cheap and filing. My parents ate it because it was tasty! Polenta is, as I said, a boiled cornmeal dish that can be served as either a porridge or as a solid “block”. There are many ways to make it and many forms and shapes that it can take on. It can be grilled, baked, or fried, depending on what you want your final product to be.