Mush in a bowl

Store-bought mush

All right, there is no such place as Aunt Mabel’s Mush House. But there is a Facebook page.

Here’s the story of Aunt Mabel’s Mush House: When I was a kid in New Jersey and our family would go out for dinner, we could never agree on which restaurant to go to. It drove my sister crazy. One time, my mother got the idea that we should cast secret ballots. She read them aloud: “We have one for Jade Fountain… another for Jade Fountain… one for Red Chimney… and one for… what is this? Aunt Mabel’s Mush House?” That was my sister purposely throwing a wrench into the electoral process.

So Aunt Mabel’s Mush House is fictitious, but mush is certainly real. It’s some sort of cornmeal glop. I have never tried it—maybe because my only knowledge of mush is from an episode of The Little Rascals in which the gang is forced to eat mush and spoiled milk at boarding school. You can read more about the plot here and see a clip below.

From Our Gang/The Little Rascals, “Mush and Milk” (May 27, 1933)