NC

Photo Gallery: 2014 Q-City Charlotte BBQ Championship, 10/18/14

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S. Tryon Street
S. Tryon Street
S. Tryon Street
Carolina Rib King
King’s Cooking
Hog Heaven Barbecue and Ribs
Boone’s Bar-B-Que Kitchen
Dan Dan the Pig Man
Pitmaster Zach Goodyear of Sauceman’s
4 bones from Boone’s
Pigzilla
Burn barrel
Weber heaven
Mish mash of smokers

A few photos from last weekend’s Q-City Charlotte BBQ Championship, now a NC BBQ Association sanctioned event. Whether it was due to the change in sanctioning bodies or different organizers, I enjoyed the changes to this year’s version of the festival a lot. The barbecue competitors were more front and center, lined up on S. Tryon Street instead of being an afterthought to a street festival. There were also several more professional barbecue vendor options to choose from to eat. All in all, not a bad way to spend a few hours on a beautiful autumn Saturday morning.

–Monk

Linkdown: 10/22/14

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– The Charlotte Observer’s Retro Charlotte blog has several old ads for the Mallard Creek Barbecue

– Speaking of the Mallard Creek Barbecue, in its 85th annual edition just as many people come for the brunswick stew as do for the pork writes Charlotte Observer writer Kathleen Purvis

– One last link for it, where they are going above and beyond to prevent health risks

– Mind wanders to Southern rock, baseball, weather – and barbecue

– Some photos and a short recap of this past weekend’s Q-City Charlotte BBQ Championship

– Village Voice: Arrogant Swine Brings the Nuances of Carolina ‘Cue to New York

The region’s other favorite barbecue preparation, Lexington style, marries pork shoulder with a thin but pungent ketchup-based vinegar sauce. On a recent visit, Ho’s thickly chopped pig was aggressively smoky but just slightly undersalted — it still sings when dipped into that sauce.

– Congrats to Johnny!

Fuller’s Old Fashion BBQ – Lumberton, NC

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Name: Fuller’s Old Fashion BBQ
Date: 10/10/14
Address: 3201 Roberts Avenue, Lumberton, NC 28360
Order: Buffet: chopped pork, fried chicken, hush puppies, chow chow, okra, banana pudding, and sweet tea (link to menu)
Price: $10.20

It may surprise you to learn that in four years of heading either to or from the beach for a guys weekend at Ocean Isle Beach, NC, I have not made it to any barbecue joints. Well, this year with my handy NC BBQ Map in hand, I was able to identify several candidates on the way, settling on Fuller’s Barbecue in Lumberton, about 2.5 hours into my trip from Charlotte.

Fuller’s is just a half mile of I-95 in a huge, log cabin-esque structure. And I do mean huge – its main room and buffet line was flanked on either side by even more sizable dining rooms. I actually didn’t realize until I pulled in that it was a buffet but since I was arriving right as they opened at 11 I wasn’t too concerned. It was more of a southern buffet instead of strictly barbecue – they had fried chicken, seafood, and even a salad bar in addition to a number of quintessentially southern sides. In addition to a heaping pile of eastern style chopped pork, I added a fried drumstick, hush puppies, okra, and chow chow (which was available instead of traditional cole slaw). And of course banana pudding to top it all off.

The map noted that Fuller’s was a wood smoked joint, and that was the reason why I ultimately chose it. And the smoke came certainly came through the tender, moist meat. Perhaps it was because I caught it right as they opened but if they are able to maintain this quality of pork throughout the day, they are onto something.

While not barbecue, I had a hankering for fried chicken and the drumstick was fried nicely and not too greasy. The hush puppies were tiny orbs with just the right amount of sweetness. The chow chow and okra were solid and tasted freshly made, though I still would have preferred slaw of some sort. And to top it off, the banana pudding was perfect.

There was a 15-deep line at the door when I arrived, and based on my experience at Fuller’s Old Fashion BBQ it was well earned. I’d be very interested to try it again next time I travel NC-74 heading towards the beach to get a sense of the consistency of the joint, but on this visit I was pleasantly surprised just how good it was.

–Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4 hogs
Pork – 4 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 4 Hogs
Fuller's Old Fashion Bar-B-Q on Urbanspoon
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Friday Find: Serious Eats Guide to SC Barbecue

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You may recall I wasn’t a huge fan of the NC barbecue video in this series of videos produced by Serious Eats for Arby’s. And this one’s every bit a mess as the other. In addition to the whole “being a blatant ad for Arby’s”, there’s that Creepy Serious Eats founder again. And while they bring in Tyson Ho (he of the newly-opened Arrogant Swine whole hog joint that I’ve been linking to for months) to talk about whole hog barbecue, hey may as well have been talking about eastern NC whole hog barbecue instead of SC. And I actually do suspect he was discussing NC barbecue when he was interviewed seeing as how he is an Ed Mitchell disciple (though he does serve some SC mustard sauce at his joint). He knows his stuff, but keeps referring to “Carolina whole hog” barbecue and even vinegar-based sauce as opposed to the mustard-based sauce they probably want him to discuss in a South Carolina-style video. If I had to guess, I would put money that this was an editing issue and they didn’t or couldn’t get someone to discuss mustard-style barbecue. In any case, way to go again, Serious Eats.

–Monk