quoth the rev. henry ward beecher:

The pie should be eaten "while it is yet florescent, white or creamy yellow, with the merest drip of candied juice along the edges, (as if the flavor were so good to itself that its own lips watered!) of a mild and modest warmth, the sugar suggesting jelly, yet not jellied, the morsels of apple neither dissolved nor yet in original substance, but hanging as it were in a trance between the spirit and the flesh of applehood ... then, O blessed man, favored by all the divinities! eat, give thanks, and go forth, 'in apple-pie order!'"

so kudzita brought up this afternoon that when she heads up for grad school visits in the midwest, apparently she has to try apple pie with cheese on pain of death or somesuch. and oh! how it warms the cockles of my heart, that apple pie with cheese is not merely a new england oddity, but that such a fine tradition is alive and well in another cheese-loving state.

i admit i, too, was suspicious of such a strange combination. i'd had apples with cheese before, which was all well and good, but cheese on a pie? i already disliked cheesecake. (and still do, except for a good bailey's no-bake cheesecake, that's more like a chocolate pudding in pie form anyway.) luckily, slwands and elemmire7 made me try it anyway, way back when at one of our big e excursions, and, well, YUM.

so i mentioned this chatting to various people today, and the universal reaction has been, "apple pie with cheese?" along with generally curled-up noses or bugged-out eyes. so i go to google it, to see just how limited the tradition really is, and i discover that someone wrote a poem about it. and that website is popuppy, so dear mr. field, i thank you, and am documenting your poem here. because, dude, AWESOME.

and kudz, there's even a wee bit of latin in there ;)

( apple pie with cheese, by eugene field, whose taste in desserts is at least partially impeccable. :D )

edit: of course, as shamanix pointed out (i think. i can't remember whether i brought it up first or he did), you also have:

Jim: Uh, what exactly does third base feel like?
Oz: Like warm apple pie.
Jim: Yeah?
Oz: Yeah.
Jim: Apple pie, huh?
Oz: Uh huh.
Jim: McDonald's or homemade?