Road Trip: Carolina Barbecue

Went on a quick road trip to Raleigh to see a customer with one of our sales guys. I looked up some friends in Raleigh on Thursday night who are going through some of the highs and lows of life. Their daughter was born about two months ago, but the mom is now going through cancer treatment. So, we stayed in, had a really nice visit. After our sales call on Friday morning, I was hoping for and suggesting finding some Carolina Q. Instead, we ended up at a diner, so I had a very lame salad.

Anyhow, at the airport, I was still craving some barbecue, so... I got a plate full of smoked pork from some chain vendor that was in the terminal.

I spent a lot of time in NC at several manufacturing plants of my employer during an SAP implementation from around 1998-2002. This included a lot of time near the cost in New Bern - which happens to be the birthplace of Pepsi. Carolina barbecue tends to be primarily smoked pork, with a sauce that is much more vinegar-based than in other areas. Even though this was an overpriced plateful ($9.99), the smoked pork was still pretty good. I chose some brunswick stew as one of my sides, and it was really horrible (though, the genuine article from a better place is really good). But, what I found the most amusing was the Texas Pete hot sauce. It is a nice vinegar-based hot sauce, much like Tobasco. But, as soon as I was walking up to the condiments area, I immediately remembered Texas Pete's... which of course is bottled in Winston-Salem, no where near or inside the border of Texas. Anyhow, it must be a North Carolina tradition.

No rating here, especially when I took so little care as to not even remember the name of the place. I was just glad to get headed home, as I get a bit wore out on business travel. But, I do enjoy the window seat still.....


But, while I'm mentioning North Carolina, I'll mention the Avett Brothers (hailing from Charlotte), who I don't think I've placed in a review yet. I like their bluegrassy-folk-rock sound quite a bit. The song below is likely their most well-received, but check out "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise".