These Local Restaurants Have the Best Hush Puppies in Lansing

Do you ever find yourself obsessed with one, seemingly random, food that's often served as just a side to other dishes? It's something you ate either at someone's house, at a cookout, or even at a restaurant and that's all it took to get you hooked?

Well, that is me with hush puppies at the moment. Now, I am on a mission to find the best ones from Lansing restaurants.

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What Even Are Hush Puppies?

Besides calling them golden, crispy, delicious balls of sunshine, the Food Network has a more solid, less biased definition than my own:

"Hush puppies are golden fritters made from a thick cornmeal-based batter that are fried until crisp outside and tender-chewy inside," Food Network shares. "Hush puppies are common across the American South where they’re served as an accompaniment to fried seafood and barbecue. Hush puppies can be shaped into balls or oblong fritters."

As far as how they got that name, which they also share with a brand of footwear, there are two main schools of thought.

According to the Food Network, the most common hush puppy origin story is they were fried up by outdoor cooks and used by groups of either hunters or fishermen to quiet down their dogs who were anxiously awaiting food the group had caught.

Another story comes from Civil War times where Confederate soldiers were cooking dinner over a fire and used the fried cornmeal balls to keep dogs quiet as Union soldiers approached.

Either way, hush puppies have made their way from being used to hush-up puppies to being a mainstay in southern-style food, Cajun cuisine, seafood, etc.

From the South to Mid-Michigan, Where to Find Hush Puppies in Lansing

I don't quite remember the first time I ever had a hush puppy, but I do remember the ones I still find myself craving years after having them were ones that must have been on special one evening at New Holland Brewing - The Knickerbocker in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

More recently, I had some absolutely delicious ones (albeit a little dry) at Disney World and now I can't stop craving them.

So, like any person looking for something specific in 2022, I took to the internet and here is what we could find when it comes to the best hush puppies in the Lansing area:

Did we miss any? What other, seemingly obscure, food should we try to find next?