Polenta is a ish made from boiled cornmeal. Although the word is borrowed into English from Italian, the dish (under various names) is popular in Italian, Savoyard, Swiss, Austrian, Bosnian, Croatian, Cuban, American (where it is called grits) Hungarian (where it is called puliszka), Slovenian, Serbian, Romanian (where it is called mămăligă), Bulgarian, Georgian, Corsican, Argentine, Uruguayan, Brazilian, Peruvian, Venezuelan, Haitian,Mexican and Turkish (typically from the Black Sea region, known as Mamalika), and it is a traditional staple food throughout much of Northern Italy.