Duke vs. Kentucky

[Taco]

I can't seem to edit my previous post for some reason, but I thought I'd add that Q-Shack's pork is pulled and not "chopped" in what I believe is the more traditional Eastern NC style - just in case you're some kind of purist. Also, to give this thread a bit more of a Duke tilt, I once saw Kyle, Nolan & Taylor King dining there once when they were all freshmen.

Edit: hrm, I can edit this one for some reason? Maybe it has something to with multi-quote ... learned something today.

Anyway I thought I'd also point out that ricks has us driving all the way out to Lexington and Asheville earlier in this page but seems to have missed my all-time favorite place - Wilber's Barbecue in Goldsboro. Swing by next time you're driving out to the beach, it's probably only a little bit out of your way and worth the trip.

[hughgs]

The Pit is good, especially if you're with folk who need impressing, but I absolutely love Cooper's. No fuss, no foolin, just delicious pork. Definitely my kind of venue



I'm a pretty big Q Shack fan ... you just gotta make sure you pick the right sauce, as they do have the silly tomato stuff on the table along with the vinegar dip. Also, if you don't pick their fried okra as one of your sides, you're missing out.

Forgot about the fried okra, another of my wife's favorites.

When it comes to the meal I let my son order. He's very so he orders the same thing every time. Which is fine with me, since he gets the turkey and pulled pork as his meat.

As for editing posts I think there's a time limit.

[moonpie23]

i was so disappointed with the Q shack at North Hills that i left mid-dinner and went to SHANE'S Rib Shack at triangle town mall...

[allenmurray]

i was so disappointed with the Q shack at North Hills that i left mid-dinner and went to SHANE'S Rib Shack at triangle town mall...

The one in Raleigh (and the now defunct one in Carrboro) are not affiliated with the original on University Blvd. in Durham. The divorce was ugly, and the franchisees got to keep the name (hence the original now being called "The Original Que Shack" instead of simply the Que Shack. My understanding is taht it had to do with the owners of the original being so appalled at the poor quality of the others that they initiated the "break-up" so as to preserve their own reputation and business. If you are in Durham try the one on University.

http://www.theqshackoriginal.com/

[flyingdutchdevil]

Living in the UK, and not being American, I never got a taste for bbq - especially Carolina bbq (Note to EVERYONE - that doesn't make me less of a Duke fan ). The US has so many great foods to offer: chili, steaks (European beef is terrible), tex mex, chicken and dumplings, full American-pancake breakies; I never really understood the fascination with bbq. Sure, I like it. And sure, I always enjoyed going to Bullocks, but I never truly got into it and would never go out of my way to have it. I guess it's a taste thing. Maybe I'll go to a bunch of places listed on this thread and have my perception changed. Or maybe I'll just go grab a good ole American steak next time I'm there.

[Durhamrocks68]

Take a look at this Durham group. They're also doing a random drawing for Duke tickets!

www.bullcitybbq.com

[BlueintheFace]

Here's a writer for Slate who spent significant time going to Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Texas. The only place missing appears to be NC, but since NC is still kind of the little brother in the bbq world, I can sort of understand. I cannot understand how Arkansas is in there though.

http://www.slate.com/id/2264829/entry/2118537/

[devildeac]

Here's a writer for Slate who spent significant time going to Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Texas. The only place missing appears to be NC, but since NC is still kind of the little brother in the bbq world, I can sort of understand. I cannot understand how Arkansas is in there though.

http://www.slate.com/id/2264829/entry/2118537/

And their mascot is...

[Johnboy]

NC is still kind of the little brother in the bbq world, I can sort of understand.[/URL]

WHAT!??? Them's fightin' words!

I don't know how he could possibly do a survey article on BBQ and not visit the Carolinas (or at least NC).

[94duke]

No Carolina BBQ.
No Memphis BBQ.

Doesn't sound very complete to me.

Now I'm hungry.
I think I'll have to get some 'Cue for lunch today.

[roywhite]

WHAT!??? Them's fightin' words!

I don't know how he could possibly do a survey article on BBQ and not visit the Carolinas (or at least NC).

From the article:

MEMPHIS, Tenn.—Memphis was as far east as I got on this trip, which is to say that I skipped the Carolinas. This neglect no doubt excommunicates me from the royal and ancient club of barbecue. I bypassed the Carolinas because I've already eaten a lot of barbecue there—in South Carolina, especially, where they douse it with a weird mustard sauce. It was impossible for me to hit Kansas City, Memphis, Texas, and the Carolinas—at least if I wanted to stay married—so I sacrificed the region I knew best.

Judging NC barbecue on his experiences in SC and their admittedly "weird" mustard sauce??

Weak

[94duke]

No Carolina BBQ.
No Memphis BBQ.

Doesn't sound very complete to me.

Now I'm hungry.
I think I'll have to get some 'Cue for lunch today.

Whoops!
I just got to the Memphis part of the article.
Too late to edit.
My bad!

[MIKESJ73]

Give credit to SC, they were the first to BBQ way back in the 16th century. SC has some good BBQ. Unfortunately that Bessinger clan kept fighting and everytime one brother would leave they would start a new restuarant with that mustard sauce recipe. Now there is so many of their joints everyone thinks thats the state's sauce.

[DevilDan]

From the article:



Judging NC barbecue on his experiences in SC and their admittedly "weird" mustard sauce??

Weak

When I first saw the thread title this morning, I was ready to dive into a fullfledged Devils vs. Wildcats dogfight ... but then, ahhhhhhhhhhh, I discovered the real gist of this !!! haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. I SO miss the great North Carolina Barbeque, way out here in California -- in my day (before most of you were born), the place was STAMEY's in Greensboro and several other surrounding cities. Seems they were just taking off in the 60's ... I am sure they have been ECLIPSED by all these great locations in and around Durham !

But before I go, I have to give a shout out for three of the greatest Duke-Kentucky games of all time. The '66 National SemiFinal in College Park (as I remember, the term "Final Four" wasn't used until much later). DUKE put one of the great starting fives of that decade on the floor : Verga / Marin / Vacendak / Lewis / Reidy. We took on the 'Cats with Bob Verga all but incapacitated with stomach flu. The other four played their guts out but we fell just shy, 83-79. It's hard to say this, but ultimately I am almost glad we didn't win (can't say the L word), because the next evening TEXAS WESTERN made college basketball history -- if you don't know about this, just rent out GLORY ROAD and see the remarkable story.

Then we go to '92, with Laettner's perfect 10-10 from the floor, and 10-10 from the line being barely enough to nip them 104-103 in OT in the East Regional, in the game that most still say is the greatest NCAA Tournament game of all time. Later, go forward to the game in the South Regional at Tampa (a veritable airplane hanger with bleachers), where our guys had them on the ropes by double digits before falling late. I know one of the officials who worked the game, and he told me that DUKE blew all its energy in the first 30 minutes of the game, and had absolutely nothing left at the end.

Some great memories, of BALL & BARBEQUE !!!

[sagegrouse]

Give credit to SC, they were the first to BBQ way back in the 16th century. SC has some good BBQ. Unfortunately that Bessinger clan kept fighting and everytime one brother would leave they would start a new restuarant with that mustard sauce recipe. Now there is so many of their joints everyone thinks thats the state's sauce.

The early Carolinians (the colony did not split in two for many decades) came from Barbadoes in the 1670s and 1680s, which is the Seventeenth Century. Any barbecue recipe from those days failed to make the Junior League cookbook in Charleston. Now a Sixteenth Century French colony led by Jean Ribaud failed, but there was no record of any barbecue -- in fact, they darned near starved to death.

sagegrouse

[Jarhead]

The early Carolinians (the colony did not split in two for many decades) came from Barbadoes in the 1670s and 1680s, which is the Seventeenth Century. Any barbecue recipe from those days failed to make the Junior League cookbook in Charleston. Now a Sixteenth Century French colony led by Jean Ribaud failed, but there was no record of any barbecue -- in fact, they darned near starved to death.

sagegrouse

Let me add a bit more to this discussion. There is a restaurant in Colonial Williamsburg that has a BBQ sandwich on its luncheon menu. Us admirers of Colonial Williamsburg know that anything they do in the designated historical area must be documented and authenticated for accuracy before it is used. That covers everything including clothing worn by workers, furniture which they manufacture on site with historic tools, building restoration, food preparation in the restaurants, et al. The restaurant is Chowning's Tavern, and the BBQ sandwich is prepared on colonial bread with chopped pork, seasoned with a sauce that tastes just like the best eastern NC BBQ, and coleslaw. Case closed.

This evidence comes from someone who grew up in Alexandria, VA. which was replete with BBQ restaurants when I was in high school. The one I frequented was located on the Mt Vernon Blvd (now known as the GW Parkway) in what is now a park right at the intersection of Bell Haven Road and the Blvd. Pigs were cooked whole hog over an open fire right at the entrance to the restaurant. There were only two kinds of establishments us teenagers frequented for food. There were those that were established by the Marriots, known as Hot Shoppes, and the BBQ places all over Alexandria and Arlington. Those BBQ places succumbed to the DQs, Sirloiners, BKs and... uh... MacDonalds.
After WWII, Alexandria was no longer a Southern town, but Colonial BBQ has survived in Eastern NC.

[BlueintheFace]

The "Original Home of Barbecue" is one disputed title and the "Best Barbecue in America" is an entirely different one.

[moonpie23]

well, i'll just throw this in...


putting vinegar on a pig and calling it bbq doesn't make it bbq...being able to eat it without a roll of napkins should tip you off...


if ketchup isn't involved, it's not bbq...



jmfho

bring it...

[BlueintheFace]

BBQ that is largely dependent on sauce should not be considered in the great debate over best barbecue. If your meat doesn't have enough taste by itself, that is an automatic DQ. After all, barbecue is about cooking/smoking/roasting meat.

Admittedly, this is the basis of my opinion that Carolina barbecue can never win the title. While the barbecue is quite tastey, it is too dependent on the most poignant of substances used in the practice, vinegar.

IMO, barbecue sauce is meant to enhance the taste of the meat, not serve as the basis of the taste.

[Jarhead]

well, i'll just throw this in...

putting vinegar on a pig and calling it bbq doesn't make it bbq...being able to eat it without a roll of napkins should tip you off...

if ketchup isn't involved, it's not bbq...

jmfho

bring it...

Throw if you like, but not many will catch on to ketchup on anything other than fries, either potato or onion, and maybe a burger. I'd bet that you might even put a little mayo on your 'que too.