white sauce

Linkdown: 7/26/17

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– Congrats to Carolina Bar-B-Que in Statesville on being open for 32 years!

– Jon G’s BBQ (our current Charlotte #1) is moving up in the world with their spiffy new trailer

– As previously announced, the next location of Midwood Smokehouse will be in Birkdale Village in Huntersville in the old Smoke location

– John Lewis names his pitmasters of the future in Tasting Table

– Tasting Table had their list of America’s Top 11 BBQ Joints from an article back in May, which I don’t believe I saw until now

– Is it ever too hot to eat barbecue? Never.

– Atlanta’s gotten a 4 Rivers Smokehouse (the first outside of Florida) in its burgeoning westside

– A GQ feature on the Austin barbecue scene

– AV Club’s Supper Club explores Alabama’s white sauce, “smoked chicken’s best friend”

– The best barbecue sides in Austin

– Filing this away for future reference…

Linkdown: 6/21/17

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– Rodney Scott surprisingly smoked ribs instead of whole hog at this year’s Big Apple

– The Washington Post’s Jim Shahin has a list of favorite barbecue books this season, and it includes Elliott Moss’s “Buxton Hall BBQ Book of Smoke”

– I couldn’t disagree more but Charlotte Agenda refers to Bubba’s Barbecue as a “hidden gem”

– Whole hog in the most unlikeliest of places? Gravy’s got the scoop

– NC barbecue in Virginia at Willard’s BBQ in Reston

– The Houston Chronicle has an article on barbecue camps, focusing on the one at Texas A&M but with a passing mention of a few in NC (though it mistakenly mentions that the NC State Barbecue Camp only started this year; this was its second third year)

– The Smoking Ho has some nice barbecue photos from his quick trip to LA

– What else would you expect from an Alabaman?

Linkdown: 7/1/15

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– Chef Michael Symon is apparently trying to invent Cleveland-style barbecue

According to Symon, Cleveland-style barbecue will pay homage to the city’s Eastern European population with kielbasa and sauerkraut. As for the meat, it will be smoked over applewood “because of the large amount of apple orchards in northeastern Ohio.” It will also include its own signature style of barbecue sauce. Symon reveals:

“Because ketchup is made in Pittsburgh, we would never serve a tomato-based sauce in Cleveland. Cleveland’s known for its mustard, and I wanted to use that as the base of our sauce. But instead of the classic, Carolina, yellow-mustard BBQ sauce, I’m using Cleveland’s famous brown mustard, Bertman’s.”

– Another week, another list: First We Feast’s 29 Bucket List BBQ Joints for Every Smoked-Meat Connoisseur, though this list has quite the pedigree for its contributors ranging from reknowned pitmasters to barbecue editors to James Beard Award-winning authors

– Food and Wine has 7 tips for the backyard barbecuer including my favorite: pick pork

– Might want to steer clear of Tarheel Q in Lexington for awhile after nearly 100 216 people have gotten sick off their ‘cue; gotta say, with a placed named Tarheel I’m not too surprised

– Franklin Barbecue makes The National Eater 38 for 2015

– Barbecue Rankings read Franklin’s book, and here are the seven best things about it according to him

– Barbecuing on the Fourth of July is an American tradition

– Midwood Smokehouse and 10 Park Lanes makes Fervent Foodie’s list of Best Charlotte Restaurants

– The best barbecue side dishes, according to Southern Living

– Thrillist: 12 of the most important women in barbecue

– This listicle of 10 delicious joints in NC includes a couple of barbecue joints – B’s Barbecue and Lexington #1

– Speedy: look away…now

– Spending the day at the North Carolina State Barbecue Championship in Tryon from early June

–  A rundown of the barbecue styles you can find in NYC

– Frank Kaminsky: Public Enemy #1

Moe’s Original Bar-B-Que (food truck) – Charlotte, NC

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Name: Moe’s Original Bar-B-Que (food truck)
Date: 6/18/15
Order: Smoked chicken platter with slaw, mac and cheese, and a drink (link to menu)
Price: $12.98

We’re clearly on the record of being anti just about any barbecue sauce other than our beloved Lexington-style vinegar sauce (or dip, as we prefer to call it). Thick ketchup-y sauce? Nope. Mustard? Definitely not. A mayo-based white sauce? We (mostly Speedy) don’t prefer a mayo-based slaw and definitely don’t want that stuff anywhere near our pork. The thing is, a white sauce isn’t meant for pork – its really meant for chicken. And at some point I knew I had yet to try it during my barbecue travels. Though the prospects of my first chicken and white sauce coming from a food truck on a 99 degree day could have disastrous results, I figured I’d go for it.

I tried Moe’s Original Bar-B-Que’s Matthews location solo a little over two years ago within a few weeks of it opening and had recently been thinking it would be worth a revisit as it’s not too far from the new casa de Monk. Their food truck in Charlotte began operating just about a month ago and had started making its rounds at the food truck rodeos and local breweries. It operates a limited menu of pork, turkey, and chicken with a handful of sides.

Back to the chicken and white sauce. I had my reservations but they were pretty much erased once I bit into the coarsely pulled chunks of smoked chicken. The white sauce complimented the chicken really well. My one complaint was that I would have liked it to be pulled into smaller chunks. I’m not about to turn my back on my beloved chopped pork, but for a change of pace more of this could be nice.

In terms of sides, the vinaigrette slaw and mac and cheese were just fine. Collards, beans, black-eyed peas, fried green tomatoes, chips, and banana pudding round out the rest of the available sides. More southern than barbecue, but that’s in line with their slogan of “southern soul food revival.”

The Moe’s Original Bar-B-Que food truck has quick service, puts out a solid product, and is worth checking out if you see them around town.

Update: Editor’s note (full disclose – Speedy is acting as editor): This review is the opinion of Monk and Monk only and does not represent the view of the entirety of the Barbecue Bros. At least one of the bros barely even considers chicken barbecue and would never, ever use a mayo based white sauce under any circumstances.

–Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – N/A
Chicken – 3 hogs
Sides – 3 hogs
Overall – 3 hogs

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