When I was a little girl, I enjoyed the flavor of bbq sauce. I ate it on everything, from fries to hamburgers. Much to my mother's dismay, bbq sauce graced our dinner table every night. She didn't really like the fact that I slathered all of her great cooking with bbq sauce, but I guess she figured it was amazing that I was cleaning my plate even if I drenched my dinner in sauce to do it.
As I grew up, I became a little more discriminating when it came to barbeque sauce. I still loved the flavor and bbq sauce was my favorite dip of choice for French fries, but my taste buds became more conventional when it came to my use of barbeque sauce.
I liked to dip a piece of sirloin in it or make oven baked chicken basted in a nice hickory barbeque sauce. Yum!
Because I loved almost any meat cooked in barbeque sauce, it was inevitable that I eventually visit the south. The south is the bbq capital of the world. I had found out about the world famous bb's in the Deep South and my mouth watered just thinking about the food, as I packed my bags. I even did a little research to find out where the best barbeque sauce was served. Everyone told me that I had to try a pulled pork sandwich and wash it down with sweat tea if I wanted to know-how true bbq.
I hustled to the closest barbeque restaurant. You could smell the meat cooking a mile away and as I pulled into the parking lot, I breathed in the intoxicating scent of bbq. I have never been so excited in all my life. I was ready for the sauciest barbeque sauce and a pile of authentic pulled pork. I placed my order and waited impatiently for my dinner to arrive. When the waitress placed it in front of me, I took one look at it and told her there must be some mistake
There isn't any barbeque sauce on my pork. I explained.
The waitress just laughed and laughed as she poured me a glass of sugary iced tea. Darlin' she said that is real Southern barbeque. We don't use barbeque sauce. The secret is in how we cook the meat, we don't want to ruin it by drowning it.
She saw the dissapointment in my eyes and brought me some bottled barbeque sauce on the side. I did try her traditional pulled pork minus the bbq sauce and it was good, better than I had expected actually!
