There's "cracker cornbread" which is what the white folx south of the Maxon Dixon but east of the Mississippi eat, and then there's "plains cornbread" which is what Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and non-bastardized parts of the west eat. "Plains cornbread" is dying out thanks to the propagation of godless infidels like Chili's and other heinous tex-mex offenders (you know, the assholes that put kidney beans in chili). It's a shame. Most people's idea of "cornbread" is "muffin with chunks of usually-canned corn in it" which, to be frank, I'd rather eat a madeline. They're about as sweet. REAL cornbread doesn't have any corn in it. It has corn MEAL because the whole point was it was something made from dry goods year round. Cracker cornbread is something Woman's Day magazine thinks you should make to return to your roots or some shit.
There's plenty of cracker-cornbread where I'm at these days. The type you are talking about sounds a lot like the "baked polenta" we used to sell for an arm and a leg at the Northern Italian place I once worked at.