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Helping communities across the state connect their heritage arts and traditions to local development, education, and active citizenship

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Barbecue

Collard Eating as a Community Sport

Text and photos by Ray Linville Would you compete in a collard-eating contest? It’s an event I would rather watch, particularly after learning that the winner has to eat almost six pounds in half an hour. Collard-eating contests have been held in the town of Ayden in Pitt County for as long as most people… Read More →

Filed Under: Destinations, Eastern NC, Food, Uncategorized Tagged With: Ayden, Barbecue, collard, community, festival, Pitt County

Whole Hog Cookin’

Text and photos by Ray Linville What’s the best way to develop a spirit of unity in a small town or city? In Newport, a town of 4,500 residents in Carteret County, an old-fashioned pig cookin’ is the best way to bring the community together by creating a lively competition to determine who can cook… Read More →

Filed Under: Destinations, Eastern NC, Food, Uncategorized Tagged With: 'cue, Barbecue, BBQ, Carteret County, community, cookoff, hog, Newport, Pig, Ray Linville, swine

Finding Festival Food in Vanceboro

Photos and Images by Leanne E. Smith The Vanceboro Strawberry Festival & Rescue Day celebrates its namesake fruit, but it is also a fundraiser and outreach event for the Vanceboro Rescue Squad.  The town has a population of around 1,000 people, and it is centrally located between several other Eastern NC towns, being about 26… Read More →

Filed Under: Eastern NC, Food, Uncategorized Tagged With: Barbecue, community, East, festival, fundraiser, North Carolina, Strawberries, Vanceboro

The Pit

The Pit BBQ in Durham, across from the famed Motorco, is part of the new Durham–a Durham of renovation and reinvention. The Pit is the perfect example of a business taking the traditions of a city steeped in Southern history, and presenting them with a modern aesthetic to a new generation. The Pit is gleaming… Read More →

Filed Under: Central NC, Destinations, Food, New South, Uncategorized Tagged With: Barbecue, BBQ, cheese, Durham, macaroni, Okra, Pit, Tea

Allen and Son Bar-B-Que

Text and Photos by Lauren Fulcher and Monique Laborde In the big cities of NC, it’s easy to forget that you’re in the south. Especially in college towns like Chapel Hill, it’s hard to find authentic southern cooking. If you drive out though just a few miles from Franklin Street, there’s a little place called… Read More →

Filed Under: Central NC, Destinations, Food, Uncategorized Tagged With: Allen and Son, Barbecue, BBQ, Chapel Hill, Pig, Potato

Keeping the Business in the Family

by Ray Linville A nondescript building on a rural road is not the typical place where I stop for food. In Rennert, a town of fewer than 400 residents in Robeson County, I found “E.&H. Bar.B.Q. Hut” painted on a faded, decades-old Coca-Cola sign on a whitewashed structure that marked my destination. Although another sign… Read More →

Filed Under: Central NC, Destinations, Food, Southeastern NC, Uncategorized Tagged With: Barbecue, family, Hoke County, McRae, Ray Linville, Rennert

Enjoying Barbecue Prepared Like When You Were a Kid

By Ray Linville Have you ever passed a restaurant, wondered how good its food is, but didn’t stop because you were saving money by not eating out? That’s my story about North Carolina barbecue when I was growing up. I grew up in the Piedmont in a stable but modest neighborhood of Winston-Salem. In the… Read More →

Filed Under: Central NC, Destinations, Food, Restaurants, Uncategorized Tagged With: Barbecue, BBQ, coleslaw, food, Lexington, Lexington style, Piedmont, Ray Linville, slaw, Wake Forest

THE Perfect Plate of Barbecue

by Elijah Gaddis Somewhere high on my list of favorite conversations is the one about a favorite plate of barbecue. It’s kind of like picking a fantasy team, I imagine. You dream up some alternative world where somehow your favorite meat, fried corn product, slaw, and those all too rare sides could somehow coexist on… Read More →

Filed Under: Central NC, Destinations, Eastern NC, Food, Restaurants, Southeastern NC, Uncategorized Tagged With: Allen and Sons in Chapel Hill, Barbecue, Barbeque, Bill's BBQ, Blackbeard's in Conetoe, Deborah Miller, Elijah Gaddis, Gary's in Wayne County, Grady's BBQ, NC BBQ, Parker's BBQ, Skylight BBQ, Stamey's in Greensboro, Wilber's BBQ

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