Mayberry Days 2010 NC State BBQ Championship Smoke Off - Photos

This was one of those wild weekends. I hit the road right from work rather than backtrack and went to the North Carolina barbecue championship sponsored by the NC Pork Council. It was in Mount Airy, NC which is about an hour and half from work and little further from home. This was Mayberry Days weekend, and the state barbecue cook off was sheduled for the little mountain town for 2010.

With papers to grade and articles to write plus covering a big barbecue event, I stayed until around midnight but headed on home. I thought about getting a hotel room but figured they were full on Mayberry Days weekend and also wasn't so keen on getting up at 5 a.m. or so to "purty up" to get back to the barbecue lot.

As luck would have it, I met Fred Parker on Friday night. He's from the area, and he sent me photos of the morning after the early morning judging took place. Gotta love locals who help a girl out. Thanks Fred!



Now this is one pretty smoked pig if I must say so myself, and since I didn't smoke it, then I can. I can't speak to the taste, but I can sure picture eating this one. Yum!



North Carolina barbecue is chopped, so that's another big job on top of the all night smoking. If you get slow smoked NC barbecue, you are getting a labor of love. No one would do all that work if they did not really care about old fashioned slow barbecue smoking.



The pitmasters work with crews. It would be close to impossible to smoke whole hog without some help. Each pig in this contest ran a little over 120 pounds. I do pork shoulders and butts myself (Lexington style barbecue), because I frankly can't lift a whole pig and don't need that much meat smoked up at once usually.



Barbecue is not just a guys' game, although the bulk of the pitmasters are male. Good guys they are! But, many of the teams have female partners, and the winner this year for the 2010 North Carolina barbecue championship title was the lone female pitmaster - Carla Sweet. That's not her in the photo above, but I have an earlier post about Carla taking the NC BBQ champ title.



Here is some North Carolina chopped barbecue. Actually this is an early chop. They keep working the meat with knives until it's cut fine. This is not pulled pork country. It's chopped barbecue and usually served on a white bread bun with slaw and vinegar based barbecue sauce. It's unique to North Carolina, and if you ever visit the state, you ought to check it out. It's quite different from barbecue in other parts of the country, and it's really yummy.

A & M Grill Barbecue Joint in Mebane North Carolina - Review

I have driven down I40 for years now, but I've never stopped off in Mebane (meh-ban) to check out A & M Grill which is actually a North Carolina wood burning barbeuce joint. I haven't been avoiding it at all - no way - just never seems to be the exit at meal time.

This week, I took my son up to Chapel Hill which is only a half hour or so beyond Mebane to his new apartment and his summer job, and we planned our time around getting to the Mebane exit for lunch. We are, after all, a BBQ family, and it's a darn shame to miss a wood burner (barbeuce place that cooks over wood) especially when it's not all that far away.

A & M is off I40 exit 153 with a left turn on NC 119 if you are headed east on 40. Not sure on the flip side. You go about 3 miles and turn right on US 70, and then the barbecue place is on the left around a half mile. So, it is not far off the main road if you are traveling I40.



Now, you could see A & M was not a fancy place from the outside, and it was the same inside. Frankly, be quite suspect it you go to a place that adveritises barbecue in NC and looks too uptown. You are probably going to get electric smoked barbecue or even worse gas or electric smothered in liquid smoke sauce. I'm not a picky eater, but that just gags me.

A & M Grill Barbecue did not have the kitche decor that we get with most barbecue joints here in North Carolina. There were no deer heads or plasic pigs and such. If I had not smelled the smoke in the air, I would have guessed fish camp (fish restaurant - NC). They had dark blue on the top of the walls and tables with blue pattern wipe off tablecloths. It was homey and worked as a barbecue joint, but the wife must not have let the owner (if the owner is a man) hang up all his stuff all over like many of the NC BBQ restaurants.



You had a few choices on the menu. I think there did have fried fish and burgers and a couple of things, but I do not hunt up barbeuce joints to eat anything other than barbecue.

They also had specials every day, and Tuesday was a 2 sandwich with tea (sweet of course) for $3.95. Now, that's darn cheap. I would not cook pork for hours and sell it for that, but they did have that nice special. So, I got that. And, my son got the barbecue plate with two sides.

One thing that was odd to me was that slaw would be a side with the plate but came on the sandwiches automatically. We are not a slaw family, and I just know someone is gonna take our Southern cards away some day over it. So, I just did a "hold the slaw," and the kid got French fries (like always) but also fried okra which he shared with me - the big fried okra fan. Since I gave him my second sandwich, that was a good swap off.



You can see a barbecue plate here.

There is the smoked pork barbecue with sauce. They sauce that in the kitchen rather than at the table. Beware the bottle of red stuff on the table is ketchup which I hope you do not slop on your barbecue. The meat was good and smoky, and the sauce was quite tangy with vinegar but heavier on the red (tomato) than I'm used to. I prefer that on the table and to taste.

The fries were basic thick cut steak fries and hot, so they were fine. The oil was clean, so they were not greasy. No seasonings. Good basic fries.

The fried okra was very good. Some of it isn't. They do okra well at A&M Barbecue, and I appreciate it. The man next to our table (a regular who the waitress called by name) asked if we liked the okra and said it was his favorite. I told him it was very good, and it was.



My son enjoyed the heck out of his last meal before back to his college town where he does not eat so well. He lost 40 lbs the first year with the cafeteria, and he was not a big kid to start with. He is in an apartment now, and I hope he uses my recipes and also some of the good places to eat I've found near UNC like A&M in Mebane.

The barbecue was a little different from our piedmont Lexington style barbecue with a bit more red or tomoato in there, but it was really good and had that nice smoked flavor. Also, the staff at A&M were very nice as well as the locals eating there. So, it was a relaxed and fun lunch before I took the kid back for the summer, and with my extra sandwich to eat, he had enough for a carry out box on his full barbecue plate for dinner. So, I know he ate good twice that day at least.

Backyard Barbecue Pitt in Durham, NC - Had to Go Back

My younger son and his dad had been wanting to go to Backyard Barbecue Pit after the older kid and I went there and had a great real wood smoked barbecue sandwich and real home cooked Southern sides. Since, West Rowan High School was playing in the state championship football game (and won - yay), and we were headed up to Raleigh, we timed it for a dinner stop at Backyard BBQ in Durham, NC.

Last time, I didn't mention that I'm a barbecue blogger and owner of Yes You Can Grill. I always figure I want the real experience so only mention that I'm a writer after I pay for and eat my meal and then want photos and so on. Then, I rather need to mention what I'm doing, or I look like a psycho or something (-:

Even though this was only a second visit with it being a long drive (but worth it) to Backyard Barbecue Pit, we felt like family this time. Backyard is the kind of North Carolina barbecue joint where you get treated right no matter who you are and can be a "regular" if you come back again.

I was glad I took my other guys back to check out this NC barbecue place, because they thought it rocked too - just as I expected.




The guys had full plates as you can see. They are very generous on the portions at Backyard Barbecue. And, the prices are super. A pork barbecue sandwich with two sides runs just $4.99, and frankly I'd raise that if I ran this place.

Other plates are a little higher, but you can see that you get plenty to eat. Plus, it's all good eating.

While most wood burning barbecue restaurants just do whole hog or barbecue shoulder, Backyard does shoulder plus chicken and ribs also in the wood smoker. And, they fry up some fish which I really must try. It looks wonderful, but I'm such a barbecue girl that it's hard to pass on real deal que.


We were in late and after dark, so here's what to look for. You're just three lights off I40 in Durham. I would say that you can't miss it, but I have missed places when folks tell me that. Really though, the sign is easy to see, and the white building and the lights are easy to see.

Backyard BBQ has a second location open now on Guess Road, but I've not been there. We are always coming in from Chapel Hill off I40, so we hit the main stop here. It's maybe a 15 minute drive - definately not far from UNC.


So - here is what you missed (-: My plate is the barbecue sandwich which is stacked high. The sides are the white potatoes which are like my Grandma used to make (kind of with a sauce) and fried okra (which I adore and which my guys have never warmed up to). Last time, I had the Brunswick stew and the collard green, and both of those were yummy.

The guys also had macaroni and cheese and said it's great. Bless my Southern self; I do not like mac and cheese. Don't tell that. I might get run out of North Carolina. The kid also had green beans and liked those. I'll have to give those a try. They have so many sides that it is hard to pick.

I would also note that the fried items are dropped fresh and not out on the line. If you want French fries or fried okra, you just say. They make those fresh, so they are never limp and greasy.

The desserts at Backyard Barbecue look wonderful too, but I've not had room to eat any yet. That pecan pie on top of the counter was calling my name this time. It looked like the ones my Momma makes. Yum. I may have to get carry out on dessert some day (when not road tripping), because Backyard Barbecue always fills me up and on a dime.

I sure wish I lived closer, but this barbecue joint would wreck my diet and waistline for sure. I'm glad I go out I40 from time to time though, and I do like to time it so that I can eat here. It's hard to find wood smoked barbecue and home cooked sides. Add in that friendly service, and this is a thumbs way up.