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Every region of the country has some special or unique dish associated with it that purports to define the character of its culture. But perhaps no region of the country has more of these iconic dishes than the Deep South where some of them have become so associated with that part of the country that the word South now appears in their name. Southern Fried Chicken is a case in point.

But of all of the iconic dishes of the Deep South none is more iconic than banana pudding. David Rosengarten of public radio's The Splendid Table calls it "a totally unfashionable vestige of the old South." The sort of fare you'd readily find at a church supper or family reunion or in a cafeteria line, it's a dessert that's been suffused with a Southern identify for more than half a century. Therefore you'd think that the best banana pudding in the country would be found somewhere in the South, perhaps Atlanta or Birmingham or New Orleans. But it turns out that the best banana pudding in the country can be found in New York City.

I was reliably informed of this fact by my 14-year old granddaughter who recently visited New York. While there she was duly impressed with the sights of the Big Apple, but she came away also deeply affected by the banana pudding at the venerable Magnolia Bakery.

The bakery gained fame during the cupcake craze of a few years back, especially after several cameo appearances on the HBO series "Sex and the City." Since then, it has branched out to banana pudding and now goes through a million large tubs of banana pudding every year, earning itself a reputation for making what many believe to be the best version of this dessert outside the South or anywhere below the Mason-Dixon line for that matter.

Though Southerners have embraced banana pudding, they hardly invented it. After all, bananas are not indigenous to the southern United States. Though we can't be sure who invented the dish, it's fairly certain that it can be traced back to around the time of the Civil War. That's because before that time bananas were an exotic fruit in this country, expensive and in short supply. But once improved shipping methods made it possible to bring the fruit to the U.S. from the Caribbean and Central America, people started putting them in recipes. Because cargo ships stopped first at Southern ports like New Orleans, the South got a large share of the banana trade which made recipes using the yellow fruit, like pudding, especially popular. It didn't hurt either than the pudding satisfied the well-known Southern sweet tooth, or that most recipes don't require that you fire up the oven on hot Southern summer days, or that the concoction can be made in large quantities suitable for the big gatherings characteristic of Southern social life.

Though an indispensable ingredient in iconic Banana Pudding, along with vanilla wafers, bananas were once an exotic and hard to find fruit, but today are cheap and ubiquitous, to the delight of legions of lovers of the classic Southern version of the dessert shown here.Submitted photo

Besides bananas the other indispensable ingredient in traditional Southern banana pudding, of course, is vanilla wafers. Southern cooks soon began incorporating the wafers into their puddings and once the Nabisco company got hold of the idea, it capitalized on it, putting the recipe on the back of every box of vanilla wafers it produced. And, thus, the top banana dessert was born.

Magnolia Banana Pudding

This is the authentic Magnolia Bakery banana pudding recipe as adapted from the one in the bakery's cookbook. Surprisingly easy, this dessert, though from New York City, is arguably the best Southern banana pudding in the country.

• 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 cup ice water
• 3.4 ounce box instant vanilla pudding mix
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 4 cups sliced bananas
• 12 ounce box vanilla wafers

Beat together condensed milk and ice water until well combined. Add pudding mix and beat well. Cover and refrigerate three to four hours or overnight. Beat cream to stiff peaks. Fold completely into pudding mix. Cover bottom of a trifle bowl with one-third of the vanilla wafers. Layer one-third of the bananas on top and cover with one-third of pudding mixture. Repeat layering twice more and garnish top with additional vanilla wafers. Cover and chill at least four hours but no more than eight hours.