Miss Vinegar must now take on a topic of great importance to her, a topic in which she has been schooled for years, one of the foundations upon which the Clan Vinegar itself is constructed:*
Barbecue.
Don't laugh. Miss Vinegar was raised a mere hop, skip and swampy jump from the North Carolina border, and family trips of two or three hours--each way-- to get the best Eastern NC barbecue were commonplace. She has never voluntarily tasted the tomato-based Virginia product in her life, though there were a few nasty accidents. Memphis-style is okay, the fare of Red Hot & Blue not unacceptable, but of good barbecue places there be a mere handful.
Miss Vinegar, in other words, not only knows what she likes, she knows where the things she don't like come from. Which is why seeing Williams-Sonoma offering a mustard barbecue sauce as "Western-Carolina style". This is true, if confusing, and would be passing without comment if Miss Vinegar hadn't received an ad touting this as "A Taste of...North Carolina."
No, no, no.
Eastern North Carolina barbecue is based on vinegar (ahem) and spices. Western North Carolina barbecue, according to both Miss Vinegar's own experience and a documentary she's seen on the subject, adds tomato to the vinegar mix. It is South Carolina which relies on mustard as a base for its barbecue sauce. This is a fine but vital distinction, and, to the barbecue enthusiast, much as if one were to ask a football fan how the New Orleans Redskins were doing this year.
That said, the sauce itself doesn't sound bad. But that is hardly the point now, is it?
*Translation: the one thing they all agree on.
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