I recently took a road trip to Raleigh, North Carolina to do a little visiting.
It had been awhile since I have left town, too long actually, but with the CCP Virus aka COVID-19 my traveling has been somewhat restricted.
When Lunch time came, we decided it was time for BARBECUE. Being the adventurous type, when on the road I always like to try somewhere new.
And with the old interweb, new Barbecue joints are always easy to locate though not always easy to get to.
I usually search for someplace that is a off the beaten path, and I found the perfect place, a few miles outside the "City". I put the word "city" in quotes because in the South "cities" tend to be sprawled out, with usually a very small Center. There are of course exceptions, but for the most parts Southern Cities encompass a large territory.
Ole Time Barbecue serves Eastern North Carolina Style Barbecue Pork.
Notice how the sign reads "Eastern North Carolina Style", and that is very important to know.
Great question! In the South, Barbecue is very serious business. And depending upon where the road takes you it can mean very different things.
In North Carolina we have a rivalry between Eastern Style (the ancient, original and proper style) versus the late to the party Lexington Style Barbecue.
Eastern Style Barbecue is the whole hog cooked low and slow over oak coals. After ten to twelve hours the meat is chopped and served with a Vinegar based sauce.
Lexington-style Barbecue only involves the pork shoulder with a Ketchup sauce poured over the top. The meat is sometimes cooked using hickory which gives it a very smokey flavor.
How serious is this rivalry?
A Raleigh newspaper reporter and advocate for Eastern Style Barbecue once wrote, "People who would put ketchup in the sauce they feed to innocent children are capable of most anything."
nice article about the rivalry and history https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR2005052200866.html
We ordered two pounds of barbecue with side orders of mac and cheese, hush puppies, and slaw.
A hush puppy is a small ball of cornbread that is deep fried.
The bag full of hush puppies, notice the grease on the bag.
Have you ever noticed that when you get take out that some of the food disappears on the ride home?
LUNCH TIME!
The pig was absolutely fantastic! The meat was moist with a nice bite from the vinegar and peppers.
The hush puppies were perfect and the mac and cheese was outstanding. I really like that Ole Time used shells for the mac and cheese. The slaw was the right mix to cool some of the bite of the Barbecue.
There is a nice song performed by some of my fellow North Carolinians singing about all the different kinds of Barbecue in the South. If you want a complete barbecue education, give it a listen.
So when you stop on any Southern roadway and want to try the barbecue be sure you know what you are getting yourself into.
See y'all later!