Today in my home town of Cary, NC, they are having the nation’s ONLY Pimento Cheese Festival. I believe this is the first large scale version of this Festival since pre-COVID. They have live music and a pimento cheese sculpturing contest and other activities. But mostly, they have a LOT of food with pimento cheese.

Now, I didn’t grow up in the South so I rarely eat pimento cheese. However, that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t give these pimento cheese varieties of Southern foods a try (all of which are available at the Festival):

• Pimento Mac and Cheese
• Pimento Cheese Chicken Wings
• Pimento Cheese Hot Dogs
• Pimento Cheese Burgers
• Pimento Cheese Fries
• Pimento Cheese Brisket Sliders
• Chicken & Pimento Sandwich (Grilled Chicken, Pimento Cheese, Greens, Roasted Red Peppers, Banana Peppers & Green Onions)
• Pimento Grilled Cheese (Pimento Cheese, Applewood Bacon and Green Onions)

You can follow those up with a topical dessert:

• Pimento Cheese Poundcake
• Pimento Cheese Scones
• Pimento Cheese Cupcakes
• Pimento Cheese Cream Frosting on Mini Doughnuts
• Pimento Cheese Milkshake
• Pimento Cheese Cheesecake

But if Pimento Cheese Southern dishes aren’t your jam, Don’t Worry–Be Happy! It turns out that Pimento Cheese transcends its origins. Some other food items available include:

• Mexican (ish) Pimento Cheese Tacos
• Salvadorian Pimento Cheese Papusas
• Jamaican Pimento Cheese-stuffed Chicken Patties
• Dominican Pimento Cheese Plantain Smash
• Cajun Pimento Cheese Beignets
• Chinese (ish) Pimento Cheese Egg Rolls
• Irish Pimento Cheese Croquettes
• Indian Pimento Mac & Cheese Samosa

And that’s not even all of the food choices available! What a fun event to go to with a bunch of friends who are willing to all buy different things and to share so everyone gets a taste of all these different pimento cheese items…especially because it’s a beautiful sunny Saturday and there are many drink vendors as well (including wine and beer).

Unless, of course, you are doing a 30 Days Detox diet, like I am right now. (Click here for my post explaining this.)

So not one of those items is on our approved foods list. We are avoiding both meat and dairy, so pimento cheese is basically out. And we aren’t eating added sugar and mostly not gluten. And OF COURSE, no alcohol.

This is my 7th day on the program, and I’ve been pleasantly suprised that I haven’t had any real food cravings so far. And even as I list all those items (and there are many more), I realise I’m not really craving them. What I’m really missing is the social aspect of the event. It is more of a FOMO experience for me than feeling deprived for not having the opportunity to try some of those dishes that sound really interesting.

But I do have a memory from the WAY smaller pre-COVID Pimento Festival. My son and I went down and tasted various things. And we bought a cup each of a Spicy Pimento Cheese Ice Cream. I remember that as being REALLY good. It sounded kind of weird, but it tasted DELICIOUS.

So I would like to revisit that..maybe? Maybe I would go for Pimento Cheese Cheesecake or Poundcake instead this year. There are lots of items that sound tempting to me.

But, it’s probably been 5 years since I had that ice cream, and I’ve survived just fine. So I can go another year without it.

But if you AREN’T on a restricted diet and you are in the Triangle NC area, you might want to come check it out. It’s in and around the new Downtown Cary Park today until 4:00 PM.

I’m not going because why make myself miserable? But there was also a small Craft Fair in the area, so I went there instead. I bought myself the bracelet shown above. The picture doesn’t capture it well, but it is a deep purple background with lots of little sparkly things. I may be restricting what I put inside my body right now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t continue to add to pretty sparkling things I put outside my body.

PS: I plan to add another post or two today about other things going on, but wanted to get this out so people can take advantage of this time-limited opportunity.