It's pimento cheese season, FINALLY!

[susandennis]

Assuming that to every thing, there really is a season, it looks like now, at long last, pimento cheese's turn has come.

I just saw a tweet by the Grand Central Bakery (located a block and a half from here -  and to drop a name:  it's where Obama ate lunch last time he was in town) about the history of their pimento cheese sandwich...

THEY HAVE PIMENTO CHEESE????? this is huge. So huge.  Pimento cheese was a staple when I was growing up.  My best friend, Babsie Page took a pimento cheese sandwich (crusts off) to school for lunch every single day of elementary school.  And no one thought it was odd at all.  Pimento cheese was more ubiquitous than peanut butter.

And then I left the south and discovered that no one had heard of lots of stuff - black eye'd peas, sugar in iced tea (heck, they didn't even drink iced tea in the winter), and pimento cheese.


I can tell you exactly which 3 grocery stores sometimes carry pimento cheese in Seattle.  Sometimes, not regularly.

For Valentines Day one year my brother made me a giant bowl and sent it to me packed i dry ice.  He makes GREAT pimento cheese.

And now...  a block and a half from here, they serve it on sandwiches.... with an option of bacon!  (Had we had this option in my house growing up, that would have elevated this sandwich to dinner fare!)

I finally did read that article that the tweet sent me to once I finished my Dance of Joy. It says pimento cheese is having 'a national renaissance'!

So guess where I'm going to go get lunch tomorrow?!

Comments

[qnetter]

We certainly had it in NYC when I was growing up. Then again, we had something that I doubt you did -- the cream-cheese-on-date-nut-bread sandwich at Chock Full O' Nuts.

[susandennis]

We did not have any chock full o' nuts - their coffee, or restaurants at home but we knew the minute we hit the NYC city limit, we'd make a beeline for exactly that sandwich! Do they still serve it? Are there any Chock Full O' Nuts any more?

[qnetter]

Not many, alas, and only one full-fledged coffee shop, at 23rd between 5th and 6th - http://chockfullonuts.com/chock-cafe.aspx#/chockCafe - my mother is glad she's not here to see this sad turn of events.

[pisceandreamer.livejournal.com]

the cream-cheese-on-date-nut-bread sandwich

Oh, that was a holiday staple at our house - couldn't tell you where my family picked up the habit, though.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about the cream cheese on date nut at Chock Full O' Nuts. As with much of the cheap food on the fly in NYC I LOVED that. Wow. Hadn't thought of that in a long time.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

My brain read this as pistachio cheese - which sounded pretty weird but I see there are lots of recipes for things like pistachio cheese cage.

[susandennis]

hmmmm pistachio cheese.... you my be on to something.

Reminds me of one time my father came home from a business trip to NYC talking about this great thing he'd had in a restaurant. French fried eggplant.

Mom figured out how to do it (slice up the eggplant like french fries, flour and fry) and it quickly became a family favorite. We all loved it and had it often.

Many years later Mom was with Dad when he finally went back to that restaurant. They couldn't find the eggplant on the menu so they asked the waiter who said he'd never heard of it. He got the chef who'd been there for a 100 years and the chef came out and said that Daddy must be mistaken.

"But you might want to try the french fried zucchini..." of course, that's what Daddy had had originally.

[yesthatjill.livejournal.com]

I had the best pimento cheese in Boston at a Turkish restaurant. It was whipped goat cheese with little roasted hot peppers in it. SO good...

And it reminded me of my grandmother's. Awesome.

[howeird]

Pimento cheese is something I used to see all the time when I was a kid in the NY suburbs, along with pimento stuffed olives. In fact, an olive was not complete without a pimento inside it.

I never thought about pimento cheese as anything special, or routine, and while I think I am sure I have seen it in all the finer cheeseries in Silicon Valley, I have never actually looked for it, so maybe I'm not so sure after all. I'll have to look next time I'm shopping.

[princessgeek.livejournal.com]

we ate it and then used the jars as juice glasses.

[viridescence13]

I LOVE pimento cheese but yes, it's most assuredly a Southern Thing that many people are totally unfamiliar with. I didn't even think of making it until a few years ago, which struck me as dumb because it so easy to make. However...I have never thought of having it with bacon. Impressive! As a kid I just had it on celery, or on white bread, occasionally with iceburg lettuce if we really being fancy.

Dammit, I now NEED some pimento cheese...

[susandennis]

oh celery, of course! I'd totally forgotten about that...

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I can't find it in Minneapolis. I did find a version at Trader Joe's, but it's not the kind I grew up eating. I love pimento cheese!

ENJOY!

[susandennis]

Oh good point. Trader Joe's version is not kosher. I'd forgotten about it since, you are right, it doesn't count :)