Ellie, I use fine polenta (not the instant one) to substitute for cornmeal in corn bread. No prob.

But I think I have seen cornmeal before. Will check it tonite when I get home.

I might sound like a complete dumbass, but isn’t polenta and cornmeal the same thing? I know you can get different grades of polenta, from very finely ground to rather coarse.

You can get finely ground polenta in delis etc, especially the ones run by Croatians. They love the stuff, so usually there’s a good variety to choose from! There’s a good Croatian deli in Preston Market too! I know it’s a bit far for you, but I’m sure there are some good Mediterranean delis nearby.

You could always try the uber-expensive, nose-in-the-air-poshy, yet totally addictive Essential Ingredient in Prahran!
I’m sorry if I wasn’t much help!

Perhaps Macro wholefoods supermarket or Leo’s gourmet supermarkets.

I am not fussy about the polenta or cornmeal I use - probably not such a good idea some times but mostly I don’t have problems! I don’t know about where you could find it but places you could try would be flinders organics opposite flinders st station on flinders st (they have a good range of grains) or would the mexican shop on Johnston St near Brunswick St have it??? And there is a mediterraean supermarket on Sydney Rd, Brunswick near the corner of Victoria ST - not very helpful as I don’t know if any of these places have it but it is where I would start looking!

Anh - I’ve only seen the regular polenta at the supermarket, I’ll have to see where I can get my hands on some fine polenta in this area Thanks for the tip!

Linda - You are a veritable fountain of information, aren’t you? Polenta is cornmeal, but from reading into it on the internet (since I’ve not cooked with it before), there was a bit of an assumption that polenta was a coarser grade of cornmeal than the fine cornmeal in the states? No Croatian delis near me, but there is an Italian one that I’ll check tomorrow

Dabrita - Thanks for the tip, I’ll give them a call tomorrow

Johanna - I’ve done a bit of reading and from what people say on the matter, it sounds as though a coarser cornmeal/polenta gives a much crumblier texture, which may not be what I want depending on the recipe I use it for. Thanks for the tip about Flinders Organics, I’ve never actually been inside the store before! I’ll check it out next time I’m in the area

I bought some cornmeal recently from the organis isle at my local coles!

There’s also a very cool online store - http://www.usafoods.com.au/ - based in Melbourne that ships US food around Australia. They also have a retail store in Bentleigh.

I checked their Groceries line and they have a Quakers Cornmeal in stock

Ange - Ta! I’ve only managed to get polenta at Coles but will check and see if they’ve got finely ground stuff in the organic aisle

Hershey - Thanks for the tip

I’ve been using something called ‘yellow maize flour’ for cornbread, which I buy from Organic Wholefoods in Lygon Street, Brunswick. It is much finer than polenta, and works a treat in cornbread.

The finely ground cornmeal would be the same thing as the polenta you’ve got, but less coarse.

The easiest thing might be just to put the polenta into a food processor until you get the consistency that you need for the recipe?