A Trip To Mecca For BBQ

On our way back from Ft. Bragg, we decided to go cross country for a stop in Lexington, NC which calls itself the Barbecue Capital Of The World and with twenty or so BBQ joints in a town of 20,000, it would be hard to argue with them - they also hold an annual BBQ Festival.  NC has two styles of BBQ – chopped whole hog with a vinegar, salt, and pepper sauce in the East and chopped pork shoulder with a sauce that includes ketchup in the West.  Again arguably, the top spot in Lexington is Lexington Barbecue (no website I could find), so that’s where we went - we got there at 3pm on Friday afternoon and they were still pretty busy.

None of the girls wanted BBQ and Bev and I just wanted to try it so we ordered a "small tray" consisting of enough chopped pork and slaw for two sandwiches and hush puppies.

The meat is already sauced – they call it dip – and there was none on the table to add, so they obviously believe they know how their pork is best.  The slaw also has something red in it and I assume it’s also the dip.  The pork can be ordered several ways, but we chose coarse chopped with extra brown (bark), based upon on-line recommendations.  The meat had the right amount of dip for me and the red slaw was pretty good – I ended up mixing them together, but the star was the hush puppies which I really liked - I borrowed this picture from eatitnorthcarolina.com. 

Since I first started barbecuing, I’d been wanting to go to Lexington for BBQ and I’m glad we took the opportunity to do it as Bev and I agreed we won’t need to hit any more western NC places – we prefer mine, both in taste and texture (mine’s pulled and theirs is chopped). 

I brought home a couple of pounds of meat and made a sandwich for lunch the next day using some slaw we had on hand - same conclusion.  SIL Pat tried it - same conclusion.  Don't get me wrong, it was plenty good, we just prefer what I cook.

Having now been to two BBQ Mecca's - Lexington and Lockhart, Tx and preferring my own in both cases, I think I'll skip Memphis and Kansas City - however, there are three restaurants I'd like to try if I get the chance - Q Barbecue near Richmond, VA (Tuffy Stone, owner), 17th Street Bar & Grill in Murphysboro,IL (Mike Mills), and Pappy's Smokehouse in St. Louis (Mike Emerson).

Maybe I'll just open a restaurant called "Big Dude's Eggs and Que" and serve both items all day :-).

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago:  Holiday Dinner Four - Fish Tacos On Christmas Eve

Two years ago:  Christmas Dinner Sure Was Good

Larry

12/16/11 & 12/17/11