Fish and Grits Getting It Right

In my tender years, my mother used to make her vision of this dish on Sunday mornings. She would bake a whole red snapper in the oven with onions, bell pepper, celery and tomatoes or tomato sauce until aromatic and flaky; it was then served over grits or rice. A truly delicious meal and a memory maker (obviously,I'm writing about meals served in the sixties). Love on a plate.

I next encountered this dish in the Bahamas influenced city of Miami, Florida ( in my twenties).
Delicious, savory and prepared with the magic ingredient,dried thyme. This bahamian version used fish heads sounds iffy but trust me very, very delicious. And it was all cooked in one pot the fish and the grits. This is my definitive version because I was a young woman trying her hand in my OWN kitchen. Today when I make fish and grits, I use Bernetta Hanna's recipe with salmon fish heads from my local supermarket. I gourmet it up just a little bit but is really close to Miss Bernetta's.

Whatever is served in Boston at The Brothers restaurant in Mattapan , a Boston neighborhood, is NOT fish and grits to my understanding. It's just not what I expected to be served after trekking over 25 miles to eat The Brothers much talked about and praised "fish and grits". By the way The Brothers are siblings not "brothas"; a Greek family serving a mostly Black clientele.
They have been featured on the Today show and their food is good. A generous serving of fried haddock and a generous amount of grits is not my fish and grits.

Maybe its a regional 'thang' ...