NC

Linkdown: 3/19/14

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– USA Today did a short profile on Bill Spoon’s in Charlotte with some interesting insight on Charlotte from a local historian

“The east/west split dates back to when there were very few people in the mountains, so east really means east of Raleigh where the coastal plains start and west the Piedmont foothills,” said Tom Hanchett, a historian at the city’s Levine Museum of the New South and expert on Southern food, who joined me for lunch. “Charlotte is not really in either part, it’s a city of newcomers and we have other people’s barbecue. One of our most popular restaurants is Georgia-style and we have a lot of Latino and even Vietnamese barbecue, so having Bill Spoon’s here is very special. It’s eastern, whole hog with some hot pepper in the vinegar.”

– The Great North Alabama BBQ Quest (via rlreevesjr)

– South Carolina’s BBQ cook-off season starts this weekend (via bbqboard)

– If you happened to be at 12 Bones in Asheville yesterday, you may have seen a Travel Channel crew filming at the restaurant to cover the “Hogzilla” sandwich, “a bacon, bratwurst and pulled pork sandwich which Garden and Gun magazine named one of the top in the country,” for an upcoming show “Sandwich Paradise”

– Q 4 Fun has a review of Sauceman’s BBQ

– This month’s Carolina ‘Cue in Our State Magazine is Little Pigs in Asheville

Hence, Little Pigs BBQ was actually just one of more than a hundred Little Pigs Barbecue of America franchises. “Those guys were good business guys but they didn’t know food,” Joe says. Back in the ’60s, the concept of fast food was just coming into its own. McDonald’s got its start in the ’40s as a barbecue restaurant, but switched over to burgers because the slow process of making barbecue was hard to replicate on a national scale. Little Pigs Barbecue of America only turned a profit for one year, 1963, and by 1967, the franchise was bankrupt. Barbecue was too hard to homogenize.

But Joe kept his restaurant open. He started doing things his own way. He’d already been offering barbecue sandwiches at a buy-one-get-one-free deal, and the line was out the door on the first day. If customers couldn’t make it to Little Pigs, Joe would bring his food to them.

– Want this so hard

Roadtrip Idea: Western NC Historical Barbecue Trail

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Idea for a future barbecue road trip: Charlotte to Carolina Bar-B-Que in Statesville to Deano’s in Mocksville (although it appears that it has been removed from the trail) and finally M&K Barbecue in Granite Quarry and back to Charlotte

We’ve been trying to hit all of the joints on the NC Historical Barbecue Trail, and this would be a way to knock out 3 joints in a day (albeit a very full day both driving and stomach-wise). Who knows if I will ever have time to make this trip, but it’s fun to daydream.

Total trip time: 2 hours, 21 minutes (not including eating time)

Link to Google Map Trip

-Monk

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North Carolina
Pulled pork
Like Missouri’s barbecue ribs, pulled pork is cooked slowly on a grill. Like New Mexico’s carne adovada, pulled pork is fork-tender pork shoulder. Unlike either of those, North Carolina pulled pork is shredded by hand, doused with a vinegary sauce, and served with coleslaw. Pulled pork barbecue is an American treasure.

Now, I am aware that South Carolina also serves pulled pork. But South Carolina’s pulled pork is a mustard-based concoction, which pales in a side-by-side comparison with tangy, bracing North Carolina barbecue sauce.

You know I love a good barbecue/meat-themed map. Find the interactive version of the map on Slate.

-Monk

Linkdown: 3/12/14

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– So there’s this: The 10 Best Barbecue Chains in America

– Big Wayner checks out Whispering Pines, a hidden jewel of barbecue joint that still cooks over wood in Albemarle

– Fervent Foodie has the lowdown on the new brunch menu at Elwood’s Barbecue & Burger Bar in Ballantyne

– TMBBQ’s Austin barbecue guide for those in town for SXSW (jealous)

– There are two ways to win a ticket to the NC BBQ Map launch party at NoDa Brewing this summer

– Bob Garner is having a book signing for his barbecue book March 19 in Pittsboro

– Taste Trekkers offers up Five Unique Barbecue Experiences in Atlanta and an interesting perspective on barbecue in the city in a post guest-written by Grant from Marie, Let’s Eat!

One of the meanest things that has ever happened in the last forty years of people writing about regional food was somebody, somewhere, up and decided that Atlanta, Georgia was not a barbecue city. Since then, scores of misinformed food writers have made the poor decision to give the Peach State short shrift and focus on barbecue in other places. Make no mistake, I bow to nobody in my admiration of the awesome barbecue traditions of Texas, Memphis, North Carolina, and all points in between. But this nonsense that Atlanta’s not a barbecue town, that Georgia’s not a barbecue state, has gone on long enough.

– The newly-formed NC BBQ Association is hosting a cooking school next Saturday at Mac’s Speed Shop in Charlotte.

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