Eastern North Carolina Barbecue
Where I'm from barbecue is not a verb. It's not something you do. There is no such thing as a barbecue, singular. You are thinking of a cookout or maybe a grill if your mind is on an appliance. No, here in Eastern North Carolina, barbecue refers to one thing, pork, cooked low and slow and seasoned with a vinegar based sauce that also contains chili flakes, brown sugar, salt and pepper. The preferred way to prepare barbecue is a whole hog at the time over hardwood coals, preferably hickory, although admittedly, a good portion of it is prepared on gas grills that those proficient at hog cooking pull behind their pickup trucks to the site of the next pig picking, the name that we give to meals where barbecue is served. The traditional side dishes are cole slaw, potato salad, baked beans and fried cornbread, known as hush puppies. The western part of North Carolina has their own version of barbecue, usually prepared from roasted pork shoulders instead of the whole hog and served with a sauce that contains tomatoes for some strange reason. It is often referred to as Lexington style. I'll eat it in a pinch but consider it inferior to the real thing.
This website covers both styles of barbecue. I advise you to draw a line through the center of the state and eat from the restaurants on the right hand side of the line. NC Historic Barbecue Trail - Barbecue Bros
The Ten Best Eastern North Carolina Barbecue Places – John Tanner's Barbecue Blog (wordpress.com)
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