Fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese: Southern stars align on a bun

Fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese are Southern classics separately, and together they make magic on a sandwich. Scott Suchman for The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky

Foods, like people, can have surprising pasts.

Sketch out family trees for fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese, for instance, and you’ll see roots that snake outside the South. As writer Robert Moss explained in two fascinating historical explorations for Serious Eats, the former has ancestors from all over the country but perhaps most from the Midwest , while the latter’s ties are Northeastern, through and through .

These were no carpetbaggers. To the contrary, Southern cooks and chefs welcomed them so warmly that these days their identities seem inextricable from the region.

Fried green tom