I can still remember the very first time I experienced pimiento cheese. Shockingly the majority of my most vivid and most fond memories center around food. And this one is as sharp in my mind today as when it occurred back in the early 90’s in Charleston South Carolina. This innocent introduction to one of the South’s most iconic foods came at a very critical turning point in my life or perhaps it was the pimiento cheese itself that was responsible for this major life change. Probably the latter. What change you ask, well this was the time in my life when I emotionally became a SOUTHERNER.
Although I grew up in Northern Virginia which is technically “the South”, I never considered myself a Southerner. My surroundings were very urban and I considered the South to be rural, boring, and backward, really not for me. As a child my only experience in the south was on beach vacations were I was not really there to explore culture or attitudes just the surf. I did however kinda liked the biscuits.