So while roaming around Western North Carolina recently I managed to stumble upon this BBQ shop on wheels. From the looks of it this guy does a good business. What a rig! He was parked in McAdenville when this pic was taken. The sandwiches done here are unique to the area with an unusual sauce. I’ve been working on perfecting my pulled/chopped pork BBQ shoulder recipe which I will reveal in the months ahead after I document the next time I actually make it.
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America must have it’s own cuisines. Is there somewhere, an encyclopedic map of what to eat when visiting the USA?
Stationed in North Carolina, its one of the things I miss about NC. I remember it has a kinda of vinegary? (is that a word) flavor to it. Lots of hogs on the eastern side of the state, they taste much better than they smell.
That ain’t nothing….people build entire DJ booths, have semi sized grills, etc for this…
http://tinyurl.com/38vv8x
nuttin like several hundred teams BBQin at the same time…its porkalicious…
[Please use TinyUrl.com for overly long URLs. – ed.]
John-
This is the “mobile unit” for R.O.’s barbeque in Gastonia NC. (web: http://www.rosbbq.com/)
My parents have been married over 50 years; they had their first date at ROs. I ate there last summer. The best bbq is in eastern NC, where a vinegar and red pepper sauce is used.
Enjoy your trip.
The rig is not unusual in the south. Many barbeque restaurants have a similar setup to do catering at races, fairs, company outings, etc.
R.O.’s is located in Gastonia, NC. They are famous locally for their slaw, which is very finely chopped. It is mixed with (I think) ketchup and mayo, and has a lot of black pepper. This gives their chopped (they call it minced) and sliced bbq pork sandwiches the distinctive taste. The slaw is good on a burger, also, something we do here in NC. They sell “slaw-burgers”, which is just their spicy slaw on a bun!
See http://www.rosbbq.com
There’s also a barbecue festival in Lexington, NC on the 27th of
this month.
http://www.barbecuefestival.com/
Can’t wait to see Johns recipe. I love pulled pork, probably my favorite food when its done right. I prefer the Kentucky version over N.C.but its all great.
#1 Alton Brown, one of the personalities on the Food Network, did 2 miniseries where he drove across America and ate the local foods. It was called Feasting on Asphalt and Feasting on Asphalt 2: The River Run. Not definitive, to be sure, but still a good place to start.
You guys are funny. There is no BBQ available outside of Texas. There are some very good smoked meats with a sauce but real BBQ come from TX.
It’s hard to beat N.C.s clear BBQ sauce.
Wish i would have known you were driving through town, I would have shown you some excellent BBQ places in the area – hope the trip is going well!
Barbecue, bar-b-q, barbeque, whatever you call it, would appear to be the most regional food in America.
The general consensus is that there’s 4 distinct BBQ styles, NC, Texas, Memphis and Kansas City. But these are starting points, a lot of regions have their own variations on the dominant one in the area. Texas BBQ is principally about beef, eastern NC / VA is about the pork that region’s known for, and is claimed to be the original, Memphis is said to be ribs-oriented and KC is supposed to emphasize the sauce, whatever it’s applied to…
Here in SE Texas, traditionalists don’t approve, but from here along the Gulf Coast, BBQ fish is sometimes found, usually catfish. I don’t like cats, but bbq’ed they’re actually not bad, to me anyway…
Being a child of the Chesapeake, I sorely miss that SE Virginia / E North Carolina style, but living in Texas has had compensations; really fine BBQ is all over. Never having had authentic Memphis or KC, I can’t comment on what they’re like.
There’s some very nice stuff, particularly chopped pork, to be found in parts of rural Central Florida, too…
Lauren – You’re right on.
American cuisine is weak/non existent when it comes to using sauces. Various ketchup blends is as close as we get, followed by piss water beer?
Too bad they couldn’t BBQ this.
John I cook pork shoulder about once a month on my smoker. I have used Boston butts, the results are not as good. I use half hickory and half fruit wood, usually apple, for smoke. Like you eluded, Eastern NC BBQ sauce is apple vinegar, salt, and a combination of red pepper flakes and ground cayenne pepper. I personally cut the vinegar with about a quarter water to reduce the acidity a bit. Western NC will add some tomato flavor to the sauce. I have added some dried tomato paste, the type in the tube, to my sauce and bit of molasses. In a bind you can cook a Boston butt in a slow cooker and add liquid smoke to the sauce. Cook it the day before serving, and let it soak some sauce up overnight.
And if I may so so from an outsider’s perspective, that is one of the many things that makes America great!
For all the shit TV and films you have inflicted on the world, for all the poor foreign policy that the rest of us have blindly and obediently followed along with only to regret later, at least we can say, from America has come the great culinary tradition of the BBQ (and closely behind that Cajun and Tex-Mex food).
#9 – You guys are funny. There is no BBQ available outside of Texas. There are some very good smoked meats with a sauce but real BBQ come from TX.
Replace Texas with Chicago and BBQ with Pizza and that could be me talking, so I know where you are coming from… And while I’m pretty sure I’ve had good BBQ in a lot of places, I would happily concede that GREAT BBQ does indeed come from Texas.
And I think we can all agree the BBQ Pizza is just a travesty.
#17 – Did you really have to take a swipe at our films and TV… I mean, I know we don’t have a great tradition of televised snooker matches, but I think we do a pretty good job with film and TV.
And yes… America rocks for BBQ.
John, you must come to Memphis.
I just know I’m gonna barbeque in Hell for saying this, but BubbaRay, that sure is one angry pussy! 😉
19. OhForTheLoveOf I think we do a pretty good job with film and TV.
Really though, your BBQs are great.
And snooker is quality TV.
I live within a mile and a half of this gas station. I’ve always been suspect of the mobile BBQ truck because we have so much good barbeque in this area that is in real bricks and mortar pits.
One day I grabbed a sandwich, it was a several high school kids running the truck. I got a bun with several cut pieces of meat slapped on it. Rather than real sauce, they gave me two packets of KC Masterpice sauce.
It was terrible. I want my 4 dollars back and I’ll never eat at this mobile truck again.
Fletcher’s BBQ for life!
17. Ben- have you ever eaten at The Texas Embassy in London, near Picadilly Circus? I was a little surprised to see a real Tex Mex restaraunt in the heart of London, and some of the best Mexican food I have had this side of New Mexico (Colorado).
Note I have been to Memphis and been to the classic joints there including Interstate and Central. In fact I’ve eaten at most of the best places in most of the South, KC, Chicago and even in Korea. My fav in Texas, FYI is the Bee Cave BBQ brisket outside of Austin.
While I have indeed perfected a universal recipe for pulled/chopped/minced pork I cannot say the same for brisket. This apparently has much to do with the fact that I cannot get good raw material..AKA a good brisket piece. I have also deconstructed an excellent foundation recipe for all the vinegar-based sauces from SC, NC and TN.
In California many of these specialties are rare since most of the BBQ joints are KC/Missouri style using oak — our native BBQ tree. There are some faux Texas style places that usually suck.
In fact few Californians actually barbecue anyway but almost everyone grills and calls it barbecuing. Then they call it “barbecued” such as barbecued hamburgers or barbecued steaks cooked directly over the flames on a crappy Weber.
I use three devices in the backyard. A New Braunsfels Texas cooker with the side burner, a Char Griller Smoker/grill and a Brinkmann bullet wet smoker (not of the Brinkmann design but of the Cookin’ Cajun design).. I can pretty much duplicate most regional BBQ styles with this equipment using a variety of woods and charcoal.
Dang John, you’re whatcha call a real BBQ cook! FWIW http://www.eaglequest.com/~bbq/faq2/toc.html this the definitive ‘Q FAQ for the rest of ya.
I hear you on the brisket, I can’t get good ones either. My rig is a Weber Smoky Mountain. My best smoke is turkeys. Awesome stuff.
Also check out alt.food.bbq on usenet.
I’m lucky enough to spend a week in KC every year, and I’ve eaten at most of the great places, lots of times. Man, I love that place.
A friend of mine, standing at the back door, casually asked his wife if she wanted some barbecue, she allowed as how yes, that sounded like a good idea, and began to ready herself for a trip to town. Second or two later there came a shot, and two hundred yards across the field one of a herd of wild hogs went down; Archie is a crack shot. We spent all night skinning, butchering, splitting logs, cooking the wood down to briquets, cooking the damned hog, then making hash out of the head. I was an eager helper, as I know damned all nothing about how to cook a hog, but I’m real good at how to eat one, especially at three or four in the morning when there’s just a few still awake, tending to the morrow’s feast.
Not exactly FDA inspected, but there’s been no deaths, and no recalls, not yet, anyways.
#27 Omar, insofar as stories go, YOU WIN!
24. Ben- have you ever eaten at The Texas Embassy in London, near Picadilly Circus? I was a little surprised to see a real Tex Mex restaraunt in the heart of London, and some of the best Mexican food I have had this side of New Mexico (Colorado).
I have indeed. There is another surprisingly good TexMex restaurant in Shoreditch that does really good refried beans….
Had a nice long post telling you all about it, then localhost got in the way of the SSH socket (see: http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=14098) and the post disappeared.
I can add from first hand experience that the Texas Embassy in London is about the only place in London you can get sweet iced tea.