Sometimes You Have to go to the Dark Side - Barbeque Wars

Early on after moving to South Carolina, my family discovered the joys of mustard based barbecue - slow cooked pulled pork, swimming in delicious, tangy yellow sauce, piled onto a soft white bun. What could be better?

The great purveyor of this delicacy was Maurice's Barbecue, a local chain whose flagship was near the airport,a large drive in restaurant, complete with car hop service, called Piggy Park.
We loved Maurice's - bought the barbecue sauce to send to family members, laughed about its resemblance to baby poop (there's a famous story about my sister, a diaper, and a bottle of the stuff). But after living in SC for a while, we discovered that Maurice was a racist, Confederate-sympathizer, and like the rest of liberal Columbia, we began boycotting the place.

For a while, we went without our new beloved yellow barbecue, until we discovered the equally delicious, guilt-free Big T Bar B Que, run by a lovely African American family in a shopping center near the Wal-Mart. It is their sandwich pictured above. A sandwich that exceeds Maurice, not just because it's prepared with love not hate, but also because you can get it with a spicier sauce, if you like.




The one problem with Big T is that unlike Maurice's, they don't offer a pulled chicken version of the sandwich, leaving poor Daniel with no kosher options. So we have developed a system when we visit SC. We all go to Big T, walk in with our heads held high, an purchase barbecue pork sandwiches for my mom and me.

Then we skulk to Maurice's (disguised in a rental car if we have one) and as surreptitiously as possible hit the drive-through to purchase Daniel's truly guilty pleasure.

No pictures please, says my mother, ashamed to be in parking lot of Maurice's

At the end of the day, however, everyone is happy. We top our sandwiches with cole slaw, and sigh the whole meal through. They don't call it Carolina Gold for naught...