Sep 30, 2010

Hash It Out

I received my new issue of Garden and Gun yesterday, and I was tickled to see an article exploring South Carolina hash.  I had just gorged myself on plates of the stuff Sunday on the way back from Charleston.  I begged hubs to stop at the Piggy Park in Columbia.  He obliged (although, reluctantly, due to cross-Carolina barbecue controversy).

Seriously.  he does not like yellow barbecue.  Nor, in my opinion, does he like sauce.  According to him, he does, but likes it Western NC style where your pork is dry as a bone and the sauce is added by the eater, and served on the side. So interesting how each region of the South has different styles.  Like Alabama white sauce?  Yum!  Remind me sometime to tell y'all the story of Emory Law's attempt at serving barbeque.

At Maurice's, like joints all over South Carolina, the sauce is mustard based.  I love it.  I'm not a big ketchup person, but I love mustard.  Look at all that yellow pork on Hubs' plate.

 My favorite part is the hash.  It's normally served over rice, but I like to mop mine up with a hushpuppy.
And mix it with a little slaw.  I don't know how they make the stuff, not do I want to know.  I have a feeling it involves a lot of salt and fat.

Hubs had a second plate of butter beans, potato salad, brisket, and mac and cheese to balance out the fried chicken and pork.

I ate most of it. 

Butter beans are my weakness y'all. Along with fried chicken, greens, beans, and hash.

Oh, and hushpuppies and coleslaw mixed with my hash.

12 comments:

  1. This post totally confirms that I have never truly experienced Southern food. And I must! A trip "north" is in order because I don't think we can get food like that in Florida. People slap some pulled pork and mac'n'cheese on a plate and call that Southern food. Apparently, notsomuch. Thanks for the education. :)

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  2. I'm just a yankee I suppose. I prefer Memphis BBQ to NC. When we moved to NC we were interested in trying it out especially since 1 of the places near us were ranked in a lot of Best of BBQ lists. I never tried the mustard based version though. Sadly the hub and I didn't really love it, we both grew up on Memphis style, and that's what we prefer. My lil Bro is also a manager at a BBQ restaurant back home that has won several world championships and been featured in Gourmet Mag and on Food Network, its good stuff.

    But I did really love the hushpuppies down there. They were gooooood. I'm not used to hushpuppies with my BBQ, so that was a welcome change.

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  3. Yum, yumyumyum. I haven't opened the new G&G yet, but I eagerly anticipate this piece! I don't think I've ever had a true hash like this.

    You know I'm an EASTERN NC bbq girl, but I do like me some mustard sauce. And butter beans! T doesn't understand butter beans. I could eat them every day.

    I can't recommend Cornbread Nation 2: The United States of Barbecue enough. Just a fantastic compilation - some of my all-time favorite food-writing is in that book. The essay on the warring barbecue sauce brothers as a metaphor for race relations in the South? Bestill my heart.

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  4. Back it on up, girl. SC is not all yellow sauce. Next time you're in the Pee Dee (Florence or Williamsburg County), make sure to try the vinegar based bbq. It knocks Microwave Maurice's out of the park! (and no, I don't think you reallllly want to know what is in the hash.) HA!

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  5. But I love yellow sauce! I can't get it in East TN, so it's an extra special treat. I love vinegar sauce too- basically I love all barbeque. And it may be microwaved, but there is nothing better than a big buffet of Southern fatti-ness when you have a slight case of the cocktail flu, and skipped dinner the night before! Beats fast food anyday.

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  6. Abe's BBQ in Clarksdale at the Crossroads where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil is my fave! That must be why it is so good--the devil had a hand in it! He he! I am on Morgan's side on this one my love! Sorry!!

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  7. I'm used to Texas and Louisiana BBQ so I've had to get used to the hash and the mustard based sauce and the vinegar based sauce. There's so much to learn!

    But out of all the sauces, the mustard (yellow) sauce is my absolute favorite. :)

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  8. yummy yum - I heart a hushpuppy too! I personally prefer ketchup-based rather than mustard - but I won't push away from either!

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  9. You are right to mix the slaw with the BBQ. I'm with Mrs. Jet Plane. Love the Memphi Q!!! This all looks amazing and I'm now craving fried chicken and greens. I'm way too far north to get anything really good.

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  10. We live in Western NC so the dry bbq is all around us...but I secretly love the yellow sauce. We always stock up when we're around a Maurices b/c you just can't get it here!

    REBrown
    rekdbrown.blogspot.com

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  11. I have not heard of nor tasted most of the food you just described. That makes me sad and anxious to visit the south!

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  12. My favorite is Eastern NC (vinegar based). Yum. Not a big fan of mustard.

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