What's your take on instant grits?

.Thanks everyone! I'll skip the instant! ones
@Drbabs - real grits are on the list!

Can you get arborio rice? Try this instead http://food52.com/recipes/3759_shrimp_and_grits_style_risotto
and pick up some real grits the next time you're in the US.

Sam, takes me less than five minutes to cook regular grits, but then, I make it one serving at a time!

...and Polenta would probably be better than instant grits for shrimp and grits. Maybe even a course grind corn meal rather than creamy style Polenta.

Vinny Gambini: How could it take you five minutes to cook your grits when it takes the entire grit-eating world 20 minutes?
Mr. Tipton: Um... I'm a fast cook, I guess.
Vinny Gambini: [across beside the jury] What? I'm sorry I was over there. Did you just say you were a fast cook? Are we to believe that boiling water soaks into a grit faster in your kitchen than any place on the face of the earth?
Mr. Tipton: I don't know.
Vinny Gambini: Perhaps the laws of physics cease to exist on your stove. Were these magic grits? Did you buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans?

- From "My Cousin Vinny"

I'm with Summer of Eggplant; they are pretty good, but they aren't stone-ground real grits. However, I think you'd be fine with using them for shrimp and grits because it's the shrimp that counts in that dish. Same with cheese grits. Polenta with shrimp would be good, too, just not the same as shrimp and grits. Besides, instant grits is what you can get where you live, so I say, "go for it!"

If you like eating paste, go for it. Real grits cooked slowly is different. Like comparing instant oatmeal to real steel cut . . . night & day

Instant grits aren't horrible and they are certainly edible just lacking in texture and body. Think instant oatmeal vs. steel cut. Quite often I use polenta if I am out of stone ground grits. What makes shrimp and grits so good is quality grits with texture allowed some time to absorb some cream or a stock. So I would advise you to use polenta if corn meal is available, if not, then the instant ones eaten with the instant oatmeal understanding.