We go to Hog Heaven for eastern NC BBQ… (NC)

This was a morning of reflection as Marcia started in earnest on her painting and I tried to track down the source of foul odors. She did better than me.

We were on our own for dinner so we went to a BBQ place called Hog Heaven, reputed to exemplify eastern North Carolina BBQ, something taken very seriously around here. Their BBQ is always whole-hog pork, and is vinegar and pepper based, no tomatoes.

The place was a little strange, painted a brilliant white inside and out, with long flickering fluorescent tubes providing an overdose of buzzing lighting inside. As we entered there were a couple of black parties leaving; inside everyone was white. The walls were decorated with prints reminiscent of Thomas Kinkaid’s country scenes - brilliantly lit cottages on small streams; interspersed were humorous photographs of hog farmers, young and old. The cash register area carried shelves and shelves of schlocky little figurines and clocks.

Marcia ordered the BBQ with coleslaw; I ordered BBQ, coleslaw, green beans, and Brunswick stew, which is a corn/bean/chicken/onion soup. (I have since learned that Brunswick stew was classically made from squirrel and stale bread.)

I expected something that looked like typical BBQ but would taste different, so I was a bit surprised at what we were served: brown cafeteria-style plates filled edge-to-edge in Marcia’s case with chopped up meat, a bit brown-gray under the fluorescents. No obvious sauce, and not a hint of red. My segmented brown plate was broken up into a section for the chopped up meat, a segment that tasted just like school-cafeteria style canned green beans, and a third section with the stew. Our coleslaw was in a serving bowl, and a separate plate provided hush puppies and corn sticks.

So how was the BBQ? Although a little unappetizing to look at, the meat was really quite good and not fatty, tasting lightly of vinegar and pepper. Marcia sensed more vinegar and pepper and felt it was better when mixed with the coleslaw. The hush puppies were good but not as good as some we had had earlier, the corn sticks weren’t too interesting, the stew was OK, and the coleslaw was very good. Service was swift and we were out of there and back at camp in probably an hour. On exiting we saw a long drive-up line of people picking up dinners-to-go.