Cornmeal, Polenta, Fubá - it's all the same

Brazil's staple grain, without question, is rice. An overwhelming majority of the population eats rice in some form daily, usually with some sort of beans. But rice isn't the only grain consumed by Brazilians, who eat wheat in the form of breads and pasta, manioc in a number of forms, and maize or corn, also in many different ways.

The meal made by simply grinding dried corn kernels, which is variously called cornmeal in English, and polenta in Italian, is known in Brazil as fubá. There are a large number of other ground or flaked or rolled products made from corn available in Brazil, but if you want the equivalent of cornmeal or polenta, then it's fubá you want.