What are hush puppies and what is the uk equivalent?

A hush puppie is a ball of deep fried dough, as stated before. It normally has cornmeal in it, and minced onions. The hush puppie evolved from campfire cooks giving leftover bits of friend dough used for battering fish or other foods to their dogs, saying 'hush puppy', so the story goes. It would be difficult to find a UK equivalent, because they do not sell cornmeal readily over here. Polenta and Semolina are not quite the same thing as cornmeal. I have only ever eaten hush puppies with fried fish in the US. You can purchase cornmeal from some American foods websites, and make your own.