Pulled pork and pork ribs, brisket, chicken, and turkey, slow cooked with smoky perfume. Or, if you were wise enough to bring the Igloo cooler, buy them in bulk. Or there might be a mess of chitterlings or pork skins, deep-fried till crunchy like a potato chip. In winter, a pot of house-made Brunswick stew or bean or pea soup is on the burner. What to have is a matter of what moves you at the moment.
Pork ribs are a great meaty chew.
The pulled pork is sinewy yet tender with crisp bits of charred skin in the mix. Beef brisket was authentic enough to make a laconic Texan who lives in Chevy Chase pledge to come back the next week. But if white meat is your thing, a fine way to have it is in the smoked-turkey salad, done up with mayo and celery. Ben's passes admirably, but that doesn't mean you should forego the mustardy North Carolina sauce in the squeeze bottle next to the Mason jar of wildflowers on the table. Ask for Ben's peppery-red hot sauce.