Have Yourself Another Little Helping (of BBQ)
We’re back! As I wrote a couple days before Christmas, Judy and I and the Short Ones stayed at a cabin in South Carolina for a holiday vacation. I’m glad to say we had a fine time, but more important, I obtained enough pictures and material for two or three posts.
Let’s start with the thing that lies at the heart of the Holidays, after you strip away all the commercialism, the presents, and the parties. Namely: food.
We ate well. The cabin (more of a vacation house, actually) had a well-equipped kitchen, so we did a lot of our own cooking, including Christmas dinner. In deference to our vacation location, we came up with the following menu: roast pork, biscuits, sweet potatoes, collard greens with bacon and garlic, and banana cream pie. The Short Ones helped with the cooking, both boys being pretty decent cooks especially given age and gender. Short One the Elder is a deft hand at biscuits.
Here’s a link to the banana cream pie recipe we used. It was delicious, as was the rest of the meal.
A primary goal of our vacation was to eat some good BBQ. Not that we are deprived at home. We actually have the world’s finest BBQ here in Evanston, Illinois, at a place called Hecky’s. However, this is more the thick, sweet, tomato-based sort of BBQ.
In South Carolina, it’s different. They have vinegar-based sauces. They have mustard-based sauces. We tried as many as we could, and loved them all.
In my opinion, the best we had was at Po’ Pigs Bo-B-Q. Po’ Pigs is in Edisto Beach, where we stayed. It’s located in a gas station that also has a Domino’s Pizza for people with styrofoam palates. Po’ Pigs is a cafeteria. You can help yourself to pulled pork and chicken, various vegetables (although in South Carolina, macaroni and cheese counts as a vegetable), then head to your table. The BBQ sauces are on the table, so you can try them all.
Judy and the Short Ones favored Angel’s, a place we found in an alley during a day trip to Savannah, Georgia. Angel’s had a sweet Memphis-style sauce, as well as hot mustard and vinegar sauces. A truly tiny place, we called to ask when they were closing (it was a Sunday). Answer: when they run out of BBQ.
I have to mention the Hominy Grill in Charleston, South Carolina, even though it wasn’t a BBQ place and wasn’t located in a gas station or an alley. It’s just a relaxed, comfortable place that serves incredibly delicious food, including shrimp and grits and the best meatloaf I have ever eaten in my life.
Oh yes, we were near the ocean, and there was sea food. One night we went to a nearby place and got a platter of crabs and shrimp to go. The crab was good and fresh, but as Midwesterners we were inexperienced at extracting the meat. We all agreed that crab was something we could eat just once a year.
gardeninacity 
What a fun holiday visiting great places to eat…now that is how to experience life!
If only I could do it full time!
One word: YUM!
That about sums it up.
haha – I think Peter says it all! 🙂 I would love to try all the different bbq sauces, although pulled pork (and sausage) is my favorite bbq meat. But I think I would really love the shrimp and grits the best! Glad you had a great time. The pie looks divine! Happy 2013!
Happy 2013 to you as well! The shrimp and grits were incredibly good.
LOL, loved this holiday. Nice to know I’m not the only one that vacations specifically as an excuse to eat. Macaroni and cheese as a veggie – my husband would totally be down with that.
There were actual veggies, of course, though these were often fried. Carrots, cabbage, okra – okra stewed with tomatoes is really good.
I love the Hominy Grill! You were lucky to go.
Isn’t it a fantastic place?
We used to live in SC and I do miss the food! Happy New Year!
I think it would be dangerous to live there full time! Happy new year to you as well!
Oh, I so wish we had places like that here….sounds wonderful.
Jen
It was a great trip.
Hominey Grill is some good cookin’! Glad you had a great time. Despite the fact that we live in Georgia we tend to favor mustard based BBQ. Our favorite is Maurice’s out of Columbia, SC. Happy New Year!
Happy new year to you! We’ll have to try Maurice’s if we get to Maurice’s.
“The short ones” — that had me chuckling. Mine aren’t short ones anymore. 😦 I’m glad you had a great holiday getaway and it sounds like it was full of adventures…and BBQs. Happy New Year!
Actually the name is ironic – I call them that to make up for the fact that they are two to four inches taller than I am.
Welcome back! Banana cream pie and BBQ!! Wow!! I want Christmas to be like that! How wonderful. Looking forward to hearing more about your holiday : )
That sounds like such fun. When we drove across the country to visit the coast and beach in Outer Banks, NC, I vowed to try every type of BBQ I could find. I ate dry rub, mustardy sauces, tomatoey sauces (AR), Vinegary sauces, etc. It was AWESOME! Have a Happy New Year.
That sounds awesome indeed. Next time take notes so I can follow in your footsteps!
That pie looks fabulous! Sounds like a wonderful family time together.
I haven’t had SC bbq, but when I was a kid, my dad, would come home, on a Friday evening every so often and say to my mom, “Honey, pack up the kids – we’re going to Kentucky for barbeque!” And we would. It was great fun to have a surprise weekend away every few weeks.
Besides going for barbeque, (which was really smoked, sliced pork roast without any sauce, and was delicious,) we’d visit Dad’s childhood friends and the few family members he had left there, visit Mammoth Cave, and have various other adventures.
Dad always got enough ‘bbq’ to bring home for the freezer. It made delicious sandwiches on toast with mayonnaise. When we ran out, it was time to ‘pack up the kids,’ and go back to KY once again.
I love that story. It’s great to have roots to return to for family and friends, as well as food. Calvin Trillin wrote something about BBQ mutton in western Kentucky. Have you tried that?
I’m glad you had wonderful time and ate well. The banana pie looks very yummy!
It was! Happy New Year, Nadezda!
Hello Jason, Happy New Year! I also got holidays from blogging since Christmas. I laughed at how you call the Short Ones, that is sweet. Being in an archipelagic country we love crabs, lobsters, shrimps, and I am an expert in extracting every part of them, yummy! By the way, our BBQ sauces are also vinegar-based!
Perhaps you could do a post on how to eat crab!
OMG, eating crabs is one of a few tasks which is effective only if demonstrated! I guess a video for blog is more like it! But i prefer not to be famous, so i will just teach you when i see you! hahaha!
First I must say that the pie looks outstanding! What I liked best is that your boys helped you! Banana cream is one of our favorite pies so I will be checking out that recipe. There is something to be said about restaurants that close when they run out of food!!! Always a treat to see how people do it outside Chicago! I’m glad you had a wonderful trip! All the best in 2013!
Thank you and the same to you! Enjoy the pie!
Sounds like a fun trip, but I can’t get past your first paragraph’s sly humor: “I’m glad to say we had a fine time, but more important, I obtained enough pictures and material for two or three posts.” Ha — the blog is always hungry, isn’t it, and must be fed!
Yes, kind of like Little Shop of Horrors.