Pimento cheese, from the vault

the following was originally written in 2005, but just re-surfaced today.

August 5th 2005

Pimento cheese is definitely an acquired taste. I honestly can’t remember when I acquired it but I have always been keenly aware of it. In summer camp when we went on our overnight trips they would pack us a bag lunch. Since I grew up in the south and went to summer camp in North Carolina the bag lunch was a southern affair through and through. To cover all the possible tastes there were three lunch items and a piece of fruit all inside a classic white paper bag. Most kids, myself included, were so sick of camp food that the simple familiarity of the bag lunch was a many splendid thing. What were these three magic, kid-satisfying lunch entrees? First, was an apple butter sandwich on white bread. An apple butter sandwich is so sweet and chewy it almost counts as candy. So of course I would eat that one first. Next, was a cold piece of fried chicken preferably the drumstick or wing. And finally, wrapped in plastic, was the winner a pimento cheese sandwich on white bread. Pimento cheese is great, in fact I just finished one pimento cheese sandwich while I was writing this. For the three of ya’ll reading this uninitiated in the ways of southern comfort food, pimento cheese is a smooth creamy neon orange cheese spread whose ingredients include; sharp cheddar cheese, cream cheese, mayonnaise and a generous amount of little red pimentos. Pimentos, which are normally seen hanging out in the ass end of an olive, are in fact a pickled pepper with a tangy pungent taste matched by their color. The flavor of pimento cheese, is well like I said, an acquired taste, but once acquired is an essential quick fix for a meal. When I moved to San Jose California, in August of 2004, I was immediately in love with all the seemingly random and new ethnic food varieties. I quickly shifted my diet to include Mexican, Japanese, Thai, vietnamese, and Indian cuisine. When I grocery shop in California however I try to buy what I always bought for eating in the south. I was immediately let down when I found that pimento cheese was missing. So it was, with the greatest excitement that I found Safeway had begun carrying the smallest container of pimento cheese. This amazed me coming from a place where grocery stores generally stocked an average of four different brands of pimento cheese as well as their own house brands. I was so elated that I called my girlfriend to tell her my California depression had ended and I was finally happy to be here. I didn’t realize how many things I had given up in the hopes of a new life and the promise of golden opportunities in the land of sunshine. If you haven’t had one yet I beg you to slather a generous helping of pimento cheese between two slices of bread and enjoy the taste of a true southern comfort.

January 2007
Epilogue
It saddens me to report that sometime last year Safeway did away with the chintsy container of pimento cheese they had been stocking. To make up for this my fiance and I began making our own pimento cheese, which has been met with various levels of success.

March 2007
The struggle ends
As if by magic.
The day after we make a decision to move back to South Carolina, on a whim we went to a different Safeway location and low and behold…Pimento Cheese. So to celebrate, the completion of the Kohler arts industry application and the joy that is a pimento cheese sandwhich I have included this piece of writing from my pre-blogging days.