Detour: North Carolina Barbecue

We were in NC for a wedding this weekend, so we stopped Navigeating long enough to get porked. This plate is from the legendary BBQ hole-in-the-wall Allen & Son, outside Chapel Hill. You’re looking at hush puppies, coleslaw, Brunswick Stew and some of the tastiest chopped barbecue North Carolina has to offer. While many NC BBQ joints have switched to gas, pit master Keith Allen gets up at 3 am every morning to kick it old school: cooking whole hogs over hickory coals. The split swine roasts low and slow for eight to twelve hours, the drippings falling to the coals then sizzling awesomeness right back up into the meat. When done, the pig is picked apart, minced together and dressed in an Eastern NC vinegar sauce. 

From the outside, Allen & Son looks like a rundown shack, which fits our general rule of thumb when it comes to choosing what BBQ restaurants to hit: The crappier the sign, the tastier the swine.

NC BBQ Flickr photoset