North Carolina State Fair 2008 Food Extravaganza

On Wednesday, I went to the North Carolina State Fair with trel, Kelly, Kelly Chi and Ian. It was of course fantastic, and filled with food. Below, a photo essay on same.

After initial acquisition of delicious free hushpuppies, trel and Ian got some grilled corn, which scored an A from both.



We then headed up to the BBQ tent that I remembered as having such superlative Q from previous visits to the fair. I'd had the ribs before - amazing - but not the standard Q sandwich. And it was... amazing. One of the best I've had, o tender with excellent slaw, drenched in vinegar and Texas Pete.

After meeting Kelly, we headed up to the NC State School of Agriculture ice cream booth. Always superlative, we split two massive cups between the four of us - strawberry and cookies'n'cream. Meeting up with Kelly Chi, we reprised trips to corn and BBQ, and frm there hit some attractions and took a short break from food.

The next food adventure was a long wait for Country Ham biscuits - a wait well worth it.


Salty, meaty, doughy - perfect. And a while later: another country ham biscuit, from trel's favorite stand.

Different - smaller and not as doughy, but excellent in its own way. Note the grease stains.

More meandering, trel got some fried Oreos (also good), and then my final dish of the evening - fried okra.

Good stuff. We headed up to the pig races:

And from there to the fireworks:




Great success!

Road Food - Virginia Barbeque, Ladysmith, VA (I-95 Exit 110)

When I'm making repeated drives over the same stretch (see - Oberlin/Chapel Hill-> DC), it's important to find what little local flavor might be accessible via the interstate. This isn't usually easy, esp. given that my "research" consists of scanning signs for restaurants posted at the roadside, the vast majority of which are national chains. But occasionally, there's an exception - some local cafe or, in this case, BBQ joint.

Now - Virginia Barbeque is a chain. But it's a local chain (though expanding nationally), which tends to mean that, at least at this point, it's succeeding on some sort of merit. And a meal there confirmed it - menus are still on chalk-board, sides are variable by day, and while the offerings are a bit suspiciously wide-ranging (the same restaurant offering NC and VA pulled pork, Texas beef, St. Louis ribs and rotisserie chicken? isn't that some kind of BBQ heresy?), there was no arguing with the product. I got a Virginia BBQ sandwich platter with Mac'n'Cheese (special that day!) and slaw on the side.

Slaw: sweet-but-not-too, not too much mayo, and while I usually like sliced rather than chopped, they pulled off a good texture by not chopping too finely. With Texas Pete on top, a formidable slaw.

Mac'n'Cheese: really, really, really good. Obviously not from a box, the Mac was coated, not inundated, with cheese sauce that was not congealy. But the key was the cracked pepper - lots of it.

BBQ Pork Sandwich: the buns held up with their in-house "spicy" BBQ sauce liberally drenching the meat and a layer of slaw on the top bun, and it was nothing less than a damn tasty sammich. Meat tender with good texture, also not chopped too fine, moist and not dry - definitely a winner.

Iced tea: offered in both sweet and un-sweet, with a container of lemon slices, this was the only clear disappointment. It was lacking in both tea and sweet, and when I hit the road again, the straw added a particularly unpleasant plastic tone to an already weak flavor.

Conclusion: at $7, a great success. I'd definitely go back if the timing works out, and would at least give the NC BBQ a try (it was southern Virginia, and the cook's apparently from NC), and the sides all looked excellent - esp. the hush puppies, collard greens and fries.

Allen & Son Pit Cooked Bar-B-Q

After several trips to Allen & Son that ended without a verdict - due to their being unaccountably closed - a call ahead today confirmed that not only was it open but that the special was BBQ pork chops. And so off we went, and were not disappointed.

After only a few minutes' deliberation, I settled on the special, pretty sure that I'd never had BBQ pork chops before. They didn't disappoint. Incredibly tender and with the flesh pink not from undercooking but from something in the cooking itself, they were coated with a slightly thicker and fuller version of Allen & Son's vinegar-heavy (natch) BBQ sauce and, while they didn't quite fall off the bone, there wasn't any problem separating the flesh. The sides delivered, too - sweet and savory yams with copious brown sugar and cloves; butter-soaked peas and pearl onions; and deep-brown hushpuppies, just a bit sweet. The tea was sweet-but-not-too-much, and perfectly refreshing. And the whole package - including an innocuous palate-cleanser of iceberg lettuce, Bac-O, flavorless carrots and tomato salad - was, as the special, $6.80.

Hard to beat, and I've finally had my fix of excellent NC BBQ.