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Since Nick Rogers' short film "In Queso Fever" was featured on the Oxford American's Web site this fall, he's been making the local talk show rounds, reminding fellow Arkansans that their beloved Velveeta and Ro-Tel delicacy isn't widely available beyond the state's borders.
"Everyone's just shocked that if they were to travel extensively throughout the U.S., they wouldn't be able to get cheese dip," says Rogers, who works as an attorney in Little Rock. "The reaction I get from everybody is we had no idea cheese dip wasn't such a big deal everywhere."
Cheese dip is such a big deal in Arkansas that the Arkansas Times includes a cheese dip category in its "best of" readers' poll – and regularly receives more votes in that category than any other. When Conway native Kris Allen was named as an "American Idol" finalist, his hometown Stoby's Restaurant awarded him free cheese dip for life -- a prize many Arkansans likely considered better than a record contract.
"Cheese dip is the national food of Arkansas," Arkansas Times editor Max Brantley tells Rogers in the film.
Loyalists pit the queso as being so irresistible that when Rogers, on-camera, asks his mother, grandmother and grandfather about the snack, the women spin theories about how the dip's goopiness brings people together, since they can't wander more than an arm's length away from the bowl. His grandfather, seated at the same table, spends the interview noshing on cheese dip.
According to Rogers, cheese dip was invented in the 1930s at the Arkansas restaurant Mexico Chiquito, where the proprietor's wife used her pantry of Mexican spices and traditional Delta sensibilities to devise the recipe. Like many classically Southern foods, cheese dip utilizes readily available, affordable ingredients.
"Cheese dip is a little bit of a departure from pre-Depression Southern cooking in that it uses processed foods," Rogers says. "But Southern cooking has always featured pimento cheese, so there is precedent for Southerners making unusual cheese choices."
Cheese dip -- which fans point out is not the same as nachos, since the cheese isn't poured over the accompanying chips -- may soon be venturing outside of Arkansas. Eager to find new buyers for their products, Velveeta and Ro-Tel are now pitching the preparation across the country.
"It's something they're increasingly trying to push," Rogers says. "They recognize that when people are introduced to cheese dip, they get hooked on it."
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10-21-2009 @11:38AM Hannah said... I find this article very strange because I'm from Alabama and I've grown up eating cheese dip and specifically this variation with Velveeta and Rotel. And so has everyone I've known!
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10-21-2009 @11:42AM Joshua said... As a native Arkansan I was surprised when I moved to Ohio and found that no one knew about cheese dip. I can remember my wife and I searching for Rotel all over the place and eventually driving 30 miles for a source (the same place where we could get Ranch Style beans) just so we could make queso dip.
Now that we are back in the state we often make restaurant choices based on the quality of their cheese dip. I guess I never thought about the fact that it is a regional thing and actually is pretty important to us.
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10-21-2009 @11:45AM Sara said... I agree, Hannah. I'm from Texas and this has been a staple for time out of mind.
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10-21-2009 @8:36PM Geena said... I sometimes feel like the only Arkansan who doesn't like this stuff!
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10-21-2009 @1:06PM Gary said... I agree with Sara and Hannah. My dad made this dip every Sunday way back in the '60's. Velveeta and Rotel with Fritos Corn Chips for dipping. Cooked in a double boiler back in the days before microwaves...Stirred and stirred to help the cheese melt and mingle the flavors.
Houston, Texas in the early 60's.
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10-21-2009 @3:06PM vfthompson said... I don't quite get this. I'm in Tennessee and have made "Rotel Dip" for years. I thought tomatoes with green chilies was a readily available item in the US. To say this is an Arkansas centric dish is way off the mark.
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10-21-2009 @3:59PM cathy said... In the midwest, cheese dip is a generic term for any kind of dip made with various kinds of cheese. I never had the velvetta-rotel version until a southern friend of mine made it and was shocked I had never had it. I loved it. She also showed me pimento and shredded cheese sandwiches, which I never heard of. http:/newsy1.wordpress.com
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10-21-2009 @9:00PM Amber said... I'm from northern Minnesota and have had this dip here. And, no, it wasn't made by anyone southern, so I don't think you can say it's just a southern or Arkansas thing.
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10-22-2009 @12:54AM Natalia said... vfthompson, I agree. I've been able to get Rotel in the regular grocery store in Kentucky, Tennessee, California, and Missouri. I thought "rotel dip" was a normal potluck dish everywhere, not just Arkansas.
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10-22-2009 @1:00AM thefishie said... I've seen cheese dip, specifically Velveeta and Rotel throughout the Arkansas-Southern Missouri-West Tennessee area, basically areas somewhat near the Mississippi Delta. In my travels and through friends outside the area, it seems Rotel is not too common. I have seen other brands starting to offer canned diced tomatoes and chilies, so maybe the concept will spread.
Like Joshua, I too have based my opinion of more than one restaurant on their cheese dip alone. If it's Mexican, they have to have killer dip and salsa!
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10-28-2009 @6:05PM Adam said... I think this is more common to the south as a whole, not just Arkansas. I'm from SC and practically grew up eating Velveeta/Rotel (often with pork sausage, beef, or chicken) on football gamedays and at parties.
I find it hard to believe this is so local to arkansas. Everyone I know eats and loves cheese dip in SC.
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11-01-2009 @10:08PM nomnomnomnom said... Best Arkansas Cheese Dip: Taco Pronto, Central Avenue, Hot Springs...and it has nothing to do with velveeta
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