My lunch pals and I were inside a vintage mustard- yellow building in Oak Park, looking around the aged but clean dining room. The radio was tuned to a mindless talk-radio show, the echo-y voices bouncing off the walls. Ouch!
I was searching for a “wow” recipe, something appealing to all ages, for our Big Game get together this past weekend. That’s when I came across these BBQ pulled pork sandwiches. I changed them into appetizer size and bought slider buns instead of full size sandwich buns.
Things didn’t start off so hot at the 13-week-old T&R Taste of Texas barbecue joint, but got better as lunch went on. Way better.
An oversize laminated menu was crowded with straightforward dishes, the kinds you find at the little places ($1.99 to $21.99). Ribs, tri-tip, pulled pork, chicken, hot links, fried wings and oh, my a fried bologna sandwich, which we learned is a best-seller. “Thick-cut bologna fried to perfection with mustard!” Remember that?
Leaving aside a few sparsely populated outlying counties, the barbecue map and the electoral map match each other fairly closely, and the route to victory for a moderate Republican—McCain in 2008, Romney this year—becomes clear. Roll up big majorities in the mustard belt, limit the losses in the conservative tomato country, and fight it out in the vinegar-based battleground regions. So, for an enterprising candidate (or journalist), exploring South Carolina’s barbecue may well be the most productive—and surely the most delicious—way of getting to know its electorate.
The firm, juicy pork ribs were marvels of texture and taste. “Good ‘cue is about smoke, not about sauce,” said lunch pal No. 1, a ‘cue aficionado on both sides of the table. “These are smoky, but not too much. They have a nice chewiness. They’re well-balanced.”