Dear (eastern) North Carolina barbecue:
You know what? I give up. I won't claim that I have made an exhaustive survey of your offerings, but I've given you a decent try, at a variety of places.
And the fact is, you suck everywhere. You're incredibly salty, and your sauce is runny. You're chopped too finely, rendering you into a mush at most places. I really have nothing good to say about you at all. You are, I have concluded, a waste of perfectly good pork.
Ever the optimist, I will continue to look for examples of the good you have to offer -- I have to believe there's good in you somewhere -- but I will brace for continued disappointment. And I will have to be that obnoxious person who goes around telling everyone that the only good barbecue on this large earth is found in Georgia and Alabama. Don't look at me like that. It's true, and anyhow it's you who forces me to say that. Prove me wrong, and I'll gladly shut up.
I'll be waiting.
Sincerely yours,
Stacy
P.S. Thank you, at least, for being pork based. Beef brisket is a wonderful thing, it's just not barbecue.
Hahhahahah! Now do you care what sauce it is? Care for mustard-based? And the best barbecued ribs are in St. Louis and Kansas City (and my husband's.)
Posted by: Kim | November 19, 2008 at 07:21 PM
Opening a CAN - O - WORMS here.
It took me a while to get used to it, though. Been to Allen and Sons in Chapel Hill? That's what won me over.
Posted by: Kelly | November 25, 2008 at 01:29 PM
Two words.
Dream. Land.
Posted by: Joe | December 10, 2008 at 09:31 AM
Tennessee is pretty good BBQ...so if you ever roll through...you won't be disappointed.
Posted by: Deester | March 14, 2009 at 06:47 PM