viva
-
Posts
729 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by viva
-
-
Background: I’m a Midwesterner (Chicago) by birth, a traveling consultant by trade, and have been temporarily living in Raleigh-Durham for about a year on a client assignment. I’ve schlepped all over the planet, but unbelievably have never spent any time in the Southeast before this project. I’ve been trying to experience what I can while I was here on someone else’s nickel!
During my year in North Carolina, I decided to educate my Yankee taste buds on the state barbecue and road food. I know this is somewhat following the footsteps of other NC trips on these boards, but I thought my little adventure might be of some interest. I'll post over the next couple of days, as I have kind of a lot of pictures, ranging from Lexington, The Triangle, Eastern NC, and a little Road Trip.
Lexington and points west. The first town anyone mentions to me when discussing the NC barbecue subject. My first stop here – the Visitor Information Center in downtown Lexington, where they have a *very* handy map of the area with all of the barbecue restaurants highlighted on it. Lexington is a maze of criss-crossing twisty highways – I recommend the map highly. It’s hard to get a picture of it, but here’s the map. Note the list of 21 barbecue restaurants at the bottom.
My three selections in Lexington were: Smokey Joe’s, Smiley’s, and Backcountry Barbecue.
Smokey Joe’s
My first sample of North Carolina barbecue pork, ever. Chopped Sandwich with fries and a drink for $3.99. My question is how in the hell the fast food establishments like McD’s do business in this town… If I lived here and get a delicious sandwich plate like this for $3.99, McD’s would never see my face. Ever. (They don’t see it much now, but really.)
The Chopped Sandwich has the barbecue slaw right on the sandwich, which I really like. The barbecue slaw is mixed with the same flavors of the barbecue sauce (or “dip” if I learned my terms correctly) as the chopped pork, but the crunchy texture of the slaw is perfect with the pork. The fries were nothing to write home about, but they were freshly cooked and hot.
Exterior of Smokey Joe’s. This was the only place where I forgot to ask if they were wood or gas. It being prime-time lunch hour, I didn’t want to wander in the way of the drive-thru looking for piles of wood.
Smiley’s
Genuine wood-smoked. Chopped Plate with slaw and hush puppies. Their “dip” is a little sweeter (but not overly sweet), and the slaw was more peppery/vinegary. The two balanced each other out quite well, so I ate the slaw and pork together on every forkful. I didn’t mean to eat the whole plate but I did anyway. The pork had more crispy/smoky bits of skin chopped in it, which I liked as well. The little bits are called “browns”, I think?
Smiley’s from the outside:
When I was taking pictures of the exterior, the cook came out wondering what I was doing (I should have asked first… rude of me). He was nice enough to bring me inside and show me the smoker ovens – unfortunately they had finished smoking pork for the day but the smokers were impressive nonetheless. The fireboxes for the smokers were outside and they had huge stacks of wood getting ready for the next day.
Backcountry Barbecue
My favorite among the Lexington-style establishments I tried. Wood-smoked as well. I tried the Coarse Chopped Sandwich and found that’s the style I like the best, rather than the finer chop of the first two places. Their “dip” is a little zippier and more tomatoey than that of the other places I tried. I liked it so much that I got a pound of the coarse chopped to take home with me. The only con of Backcountry Barbecue in my eyes was the lack of counter seating - I like to sit at the counter and chat with the waitstaff.
I had the sandwich with a side of banana pudding. Look at that pork spilling out of the sandwich! I was stuffed to the brim by the time I even arrived at Backcountry Barbecue, but I ate the whole thing anyway, and took the banana pudding home with me to eat later.
Backcountry Barbecue is further away from town than the others (and in Linwood, not Lexington) but fairly easy to get to from I-85. I’d tell you it’s across from a furniture plant and next to a gas station, but that wouldn’t really distinguish the destination very much.
Other things to do in Lexington while you’re waiting for the pig to digest (the people at the Visitor Center are very friendly and will sit & chat with you about your interests)…
Downtown has a nice Main Street with painted pigs in a lot of the store windows (similar to the painted cows that were on display in downtown Chicago). My favorite: the “Pig Cadillac”:
Downtown also has the Candy Factory, which has a great selection of novelty candies. Here’s my selection (which got a little warm in the NC July heat):
Clockwise from top: a mixed bag of wrapped candies, malted milk balls, butterscotch bars (think Mounds bars covered in butterscotch instead of chocolate), and zagnuts. Zagnuts are crispy little candies of joy that I can’t believe I hadn’t discovered until now – like the inside of a Butterfinger (no chocolate coating) but flakier and with a more peanutty/coconutty taste. I was also tickled by the wrapped Squirrel Nut Zipper candies, which I had heretofore thought were only a retro/swing band.
Last, there’s also a fairly new winery outside of town (Childress) that made for a nice respite from the heat. The wine wasn’t memorable enough for me to want to buy it and figure out a way to protect it from the heat while I was eating barbecue, but good enough to be a refreshing barbecue interlude. I think Childress was a stock car driver – the bottles are decorated with the checkered flag. Am I displaying NASCAR ignorance, or what?
Next stop: The Triangle.
-
There are no Trader Joe's in the state of Texas?!?! The hell. How can I move to such a state?
-
The guy at Scofflaw's Den did pecans in rye whiskey - I've tried it and liked it better than the bacon-flavored Maker's Mark. Kinda looking forward to some fall cocktails with this one along the lines of the pecan pie cocktail noted in the blog.
Clickety here and scroll down to the end of the post for details.
Not sure what the advantage of doing a nut butter over the nut itself would be?
-
I just bottled my first batch after 10 months in the beans, and added a bit of simple syrup to prevent the aforementioned curdling. The vanilla extract is *very* dark with a strong vanilla scent. I used a lot of beans! But since I did, I figured they'd be good for another go-round, and refilled the bottles to hide in the back of the cupboard until Christmas, when they should be good for gift giving!
-
Just bumping this to say bless you all... I am at a client site in Alpharetta this week and quickly jotted down the names of the restaurants mentioned to look up later.
As I was driving to my hotel I made a wrong turn and wound up on Hwy 400. In the process of making a u-turn at the next exit, I saw a sign for Slopes BBQ, remembered the name from this thread, and followed the signs. 10 minutes later I had BBQ chicken, pork, mac & cheese, collard greens, and blackberry cobbler. Awesome. Totally made up for the fact that I got completely lost.
-
So, I finally decanted my vinegar crocks for the first time, unravelling the mystery of what lies beneath the floating mats. Answer: more mats. Layers and layers of mats, corresponding in thickness (I presume) to the frequency with which I added a more wine on top. And, at the bottom, the original mother, still rocking and rolling.
I strained the vinegar through paper towels into sterilized wine bottles, and bottled it without diluting with water. I figure it's easy enough to dilute later.
My yield was 1.5L of white vinegar and 750mL of red. What can I say, I drink more white than red. More dregs for the vinegar crock.
I naturally tasted each of them and loved the flavor. Both were very sharp (which I would expect because I did not dilute and I'm guessing my acidity is way high relative to store-bought vinegar), and had very full flavors when compared to store-bought red and white vinegars. I'm very pleased with the results.
Since this is probably more vinegar than I can possibly need in the next 5 years, I think I'd like to try some pineapple vinegar next. Pineapples have been on sale at Earth Fare!
-
THIS is what I had after dinner in Prague!!!! Thanks for putting a name with my memory.
-
Congrats, hummingbirdkiss, on de-larding!
I'm pretty much de-larded, myself... I still have (ironically) the quart of lard, but I'm set on making a batch of fried fish (which is the last item in the freezer) with it and the last of the flour. But I am holding off cooking that until next week as I have about 5 lbs of yummy pulled pork to work my way through.
And I agree... I never made a list, or a plan. I just browsed recipes looking for some of the things I'd seen in the pantry. Which made me try some new things (lard-orange-cinnamon cookies!) and long lost old favorites (spoonbread! which is just the best thing for soaking up pork gravy, ever). Things just kind of came together on their own, which made it more fun & creative.
-
Mr. E also had boxes and boxes of mixes -- instant pudding, instant milk, brownie mix, cornbread mix, Kraft mac-n-cheese ... Those kind of things, specifically the unopened boxes, I'm more likely to purge the next time there's a local food pantry drive. But I might at least use up the corn bread mix tonight to serve with the bean soup.
In past moves, I've been able to give away unopened canned & boxed foods directly to the Salvation Army donation centers. Very convenient and available all the time. A thought if you don't want to wait for a food pantry drive.
-
Viva you are my hero!!! how wonderful you turned everything into gold!
I had forgotten about spoonbread! what a great idea
grits I love them in the cheddar/jalepeno casserole
if I had a quart of lard I would find something to deep fry! if it is pure lard then I would bake some biscochitos (have you had/made those? they are so good and keep well I think)
No, what are biscochitos? I've been eyeing the Fried Chicken thread thinking that lard might make a tasty batch of fried chicken...
I drank the other two thirds, fell asleep, left it open on the counter, and forgot about it until the following evening. It wasn't as tasty after being left open for so long!!! Trust me, it's not a common occurrence. -
I am SO pleased with my efforts today.
Cookies made with (among other things): the last of the sugar and almost the last of the flour, a significant dent made into the lard, and an orange that was forgotten in the produce drawer. Lard-orange-cinnamon cookies? Yummy.
Spoonbread made with (among other things): the last of the cornmeal, more lard, the last of the sour cream (yay!!), and almost the end of the milk.
Breakfast of the last of the yogurt, dents made in the sunflower seeds, Fiber One, honey, the last of the grilled pineapple, and a random bag of toasted shredded coconut.
I picked up a boston butt, cut in half to slow-roast two different ways:
(1) glazed with a reduction of that half-jar of blackberry jelly, a leftover 1/3 bottle of shiraz, dregs of leftover chicken stock, and dijon. I'm thinking a gravy with the pan drippings (using the last of the flour!!!) served over the aforementioned spoonbread.
(2) covered in a paste of the leftover chopped jalapenos, the last of the jalapeno hot sauce, a dent put in the yellow mustard, honey, garlic, paprika and oregano. To be shredded and served with the last of the pickled onions and carrots!
I am still faced with the grits. I'm thinking a breakfast grits scramble tomorrow with leftover salmon and that little piece of shallot that was hiding in the produce drawer, and the last round of goat cheese.
I am also still faced with the watermelon pickle and a quart of lard. This one is tougher, because I'm really not that fond of mass quantities of watermelon pickle. The lard might need to be used in some sort of confit.
Pretty much everything else in the fridge and cupboard I am comfortable that I use regularly enough to consume by the time I move, or is good enough to bother taking with me (no way am I leaving my salt pork behind!)
Yay.
-
5 bottles of fish sauce!!
I'm trying to think of a use for a half jar of blackberry jelly. I don't know why I bought jelly. Jam is infinitely superior. I'm thinking of cooking it down into a glaze for chicken, maybe with some red wine thrown in and some stock and herbs for savory flavor? Hmmm.
-
I like Rally's fries a lot... excellent hangover cure. I once had a summer intern that was really stressing out and on the verge of quitting... I took him to Rally's and the french fries made him all better.
The fry-cook at my nearby In-N-Out where I used to live in Phoenix must have been sleepy, because my fries were always nicely crispy. Not too much, but just enough. Sadly, I no longer live in the In-N-Out zone to try another location.
Of the big chains, I'd have to agree that Wendy's are the best - I think they fry them a little longer than McD's because you don't get as many flaccid fries at Wendy's. And they hold salt well.
Burger King's are heinous pieces of styrofoam (last time I checked... I think it's been over 10 years since I've been in a BK... those King ads are just too disturbing).
-
My late friend would not eat rice. She said it reminded her of maggots.
When we were young she ate rice all the time and Chicken with Yellow rice was one of her favorite things.
The older she got the more neurotic she became.
my late mother would not eat orzo for the same reason. i think orzo looks more like maggots than rice, but then to each her own....
I have the same issue with little pastas and rice. I wouldn't call it a neuroses yet, because if necessary I can eat them, but I certainly won't seek them out or make them myself. Rice in sushi is ok, probably because it's clumped together and sticky rather than being loose and ... maggoty looking. Grandma used to make some particularly vile "chow mein" dinners that didn't help with the rice thing, either.
Note that I actually will eat and have eaten fried bugs (cricket, grasshopper... not bad, all they needed was a little salt), so you can chalk me up as completely irrational.
-
Sweet! Thanks very much for the information.
-
I got hooked on karkade in Egypt. Anyone know of a good source I can use once my vacation-purchased supply runs out? It looks like dried hibiscus leaves only, but I don't know if it's a specific kind of hibiscus (rather than the one grandma grew in her yard in Florida). Is it called other things that might be more readily available? The closest thing I can find is Red Zinger
-
Oh yeah. I'm currently working my way through 3 quart jars of raspberry/fig and scuppernong jams. Because, this spring and summer, there will be more jam. Strawberries are right around the corner! Yikes! Plus pickled onions/carrots and pickled watermelon rind. Because there'll be more of them, too. These jars are never-ending.
And then there's the 2 quarts of lard in the freezer, from which I have been making lard-cornbread, lard-gingersnaps, and lard-biscuits.
Last, but not least, there's an endless box of grits that just won't die!!!
I have an additional reason for spring larder cleaning - I may move soon, and like to polish off as much as possible before moving.
-
Toliver, I just noticed your post on the Chip of the Month club and may seriously get that for my sister for her birthday.
Anyway - my latest chip news is from Egypt, the labels of which were in Arabic, so I have no idea what the brand was. There were, helpfully, pictures of the ingredients so I generally knew what I was getting into. The only English word on the label was "Chipsy". Similar texture to Lays. My favorite was the Chicken + Herbs, which was nicely chicken-y and salty. I also tried the tomato flavored Chipsy's which reminded me of eating tomato paste. Not good.
The salt Chipsy's got me through a lot of Stella beer on a felucca trip.
-
My biscuits look like hockey pucks, so I would never criticize. Anyway, nice job Kbjesq!
-
demiglace, if I were on death row, that would be my last meal. Fried chicken (with buttermilk and Crystal!), mac & cheese, and collards! Especially if you had some salt pork in there when you cooked those collards.
-
From recent safari in Kenya & Tanzania…
Most of our camp food was basic fare (fried fish, chops, pasta, salad, etc) designed to be non-objectionable to pretty much any western palate on safari, but we asked Alloise, our Kenyan (Kamba tribe) camp cook, to do a traditional meal for us one night. Alloise learned to cook from his mother who ran a restaurant kitchen in Kenya, and says his best recipes are hers. Here's Alloise in action (frying up some chops).
Here's our traditional meal. Everything is eaten with your hands. Nola and Nikki have ugali on their plates (the white heap) which is used as described in posts above to mold into a spoonish shape to dip into the stews. From the top, we've got...my favorite “irio” or “mukimo” which was a mashed stew of corn, potatoes, peas, and ghee (Alloise insisted that ghee was the secret to success in making irio). Next was “karanga”, a beef stew with potatoes, and at the bottom of the picture is “mboga”, a stewed mix of cabbage, carrots, and potatoes (I think “mboga” is a generic term for mixed vegetables). Alloise also made some chapatis for us, just in case the ugali was not that popular (it wasn’t). He also served up some banana fritters at the end that were gone too quickly to take photos of.
Also had road food at a local lunch shack of nyama choma (generic word for roasted meat which in this case was goat), along with ugali. Very plain but filling. No picture but envision cubes o’ goat in one tupperware, and a heap of ugali in the other.
On the other hand, there are the Maasai who traditionally eat a yogurt made from the blood of their cattle mixed with milk and stored for the day in a dried calabash (shown below). I did not try this (to be fair, I wasn’t offered any – I might have tried it but I wasn’t exactly going to actively seek it out).
Also stopped for banana beer in Mto Wa Mbu made from fermented green bananas and millet. Banana beer is called a “social beer” where 5-6 people may be drinking from one cup, and 100-500L of banana beer may be included in the dowry paid for a bride (to be consumed at the wedding party). This man (from the Chaga tribe) is stirring the banana mush.
Chupaju!
-
Out of curiousity do people who like the peanut butter creamy prefer pulp free orange juice, and vice versa? I've always had this theory that people who like crunchy peanut butter like pulpy orange juice, and people who like creamy peanut butter like pulp free, but I've never tested it.
For myself crunchy natural style, and (horrors) salt free.
Not I. I only eat creamy peanut butter (maybe I'll try crunchy again just to make sure), and I heavily prefer my OJ to be very very pulpy.
The opposite here... only crunchy peanut butter, and pulp-free OJ please. I don't like filtering my drinks through my teeth. And creamy peanut butter... I don't get. Ever. Only used for cooking purposes where I can't get away with a crunchy peanut texture.
-
So, I was reminded by another topic that I have vinegar-in-process that's been sitting around in my cabinet for 6-7 months, getting fed some bottle dregs occasionally and otherwise untouched. I had to check this thread because I forgot when I started 'em.
I think it's probably time to decant it. Questions arise:
I gather that I probably will need to dilute it a bit down for taste, but I'm wondering if I should bottle without diluting (I think of water as the enemy that harboreth all bacteria).
Also, I'll obviously want to keep the mother going in a new batch. My vinegar is in pottery crocks, so I can't really see what's going on in there, but there's a fairly sturdy mat floating on top. Is that the mother, or is that a by product of the mother, and she's still lurking around underneath the mat, looking like the Bragg's Cider mother she started out as?
-
Dude. I order the filet with skin, and ask for the thin tip end of the filet so that I can maximize my salmon skin-to-meat ratio. Crispy salmon skin is one of God's great gifts to man!
And - I cook it skin-side-up in the oven, so that the skin doesn't get soggy. A quick finish under the broiler.... a sprinkle of salt... mmmm... Heaven.
North Carolina, Barbecue, and Beyond
in Southeast: Dining
Posted
I know - there's a lot of information to be gained by snooping around the wood pile! But fear not - I've got a return to Lexington down the road in my report
Uh-oh... I never went to Reidsville! You'll have to tell me what I missed out on!