May 07 2007
In Pursuit of Carolina Barbecue
So here I sit in the Charlotte, NC airport sucking simultaneously on my second tall Foster’s and free wifi. This is the good and bad of travel: crappy beer (and yet, the best of the four depressing choices on tap) and free bandwidth on which to while away my time. It’s a story that’s played out in airports across the country. Well, not really. It’s usually bad AND bad. Like, Bud Light and pay T-Mobile $9.95 for a day’s access thankyouverymuch.
So I’ve been here in North Carolina since Friday night (not in the airport - that would be weird), and it took until lunch today to get my hands on some barbecue. Since my teeth have been hurting like hell (new wires in the braces), I’ve pretty much been looking for food I could mash with my tongue, which means plenty of pasta and omelets. There are few things that tire your tongue out like requiring it to do all the pre-digestive work usually reserved for mastication.
Sadly though, the barbecue in question turned out to be disappointing. I was expecting some tangy vinegar-based barbecue and instead was presented with a fairly tasteless shredded pork onto which I was expected to dump the sauce of my choice. Depressing, after the buildup I gave it when I described the NC-style BBQ to my traveling mates.
Speaking of that, we’re down here shooting a couple more segments for “Big or Small: Measure It All,” our latest PBS effort. It’s been pretty cool so far. Today’s shoot was at Firefly Balloons, which makes high-end hot air balloons. While here in the Charlotte area we also did a couple of shoots at a sailboat race/regatta.
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Update: turns out you can get better BBQ at the Carolina Pit BBQ at the airport. And some tasty black-eyed peas. I’d have gone for the fried okra for the full southren experience but it didn’t look like something I could chew.
Pics or it didn’t happen.
/digg comment
HAH. Here is the view from the table at which I typed that post.
And here’s the view from the table where I consumed the airport bbq.
Smarty pants.
Oh, and here’s where I parked my car at the airport:
And here’s where the folks at the Lake Norman Yacht Club keep their garbage:
High end air ballons? Do you really want the bargain basement ballons? “It’ll hold hot air most of the time.” “Pull that string and you drop like a rock!”
RE the shredded pork - did they find some in the back of the cooler for you???
So…..are you the black guy at the table? Looks like he is partaking of a lovely tall Foster’s. Thought you were more on the pasty end of the skin spectrum, but it could be the high end airport food court lighting that threw me off.
“Big or Small: Measure it all”: Insert obvious sophomoric comment here. I know I did.
Jim