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Goldsboro Salt: How to Enjoy Feasting in North Carolina's East By
Shirley Fong-Torres (Pictured above are, from left, Wilber Shirley, owner of Wilber's, Wro, and Shirley Fong-Torres) Food-and-wine festivals are big business these days, too big for some of us with neurological-class aversions to large crowds and traffic jams. In the San Francisco Bay Area, super events like the Gilroy Garlic Festival and the Mountain View Art and Wine Fest attract up to 200,000 people to areas that aren't used to it. Like wine fests in the 1990s, barbecue festivals are the "smoke and fire" of this decade's tourist industry from coast to coast. Traditions like the Lexington Barbecue Festival in North Carolina and the "Memphis in May Barbecue" attract Woodstock-sized crowds on an annual basis. Unfortunately, my fussy, gay bear Wroburlto worries that so many people might mess the creases in his clothes. So, Wro and I sometimes like the idea of food festivals better than their reality. We choose the ones we attend with great deliberation, usually preferring what Wro calls "cute young ones." Gene Wiseman Calls So when Gene Wiseman called to tell us about the first-ever Feast in the East barbecue festival in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Wro told me to start packing.
(Shirley poses with Gene Wiseman, the "prawn man") Since Goldsboro occupies a mausoleum in the lore of American barbecue, I did as he said. We flew into Raleigh-Durham airport and drove immediately to Goldsboro, an hour and a half east. Nothing refreshes a traveling bear like BBQ, and among Goldsboro's many Q joints, two stand out. Meet the Founding Father of Goldsboro BBQ Adam Scott was the founding father of Goldsboro BBQ. Legend has it that while selling his smoked pig on Goldsboro street corners, the African-American pit master was discovered by a campaigning Presidential candidate named Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy was so impressed that he brought Scott to Washington to prepare his inaugural dinner. That fame interested investors in helping Scott establish a sit-down restaurant, which his grandson Martel now runs, with help from his mother, who served us from her walker. Scott's has converted from wood to gas, but not much else has changed. Some BBQ purists prefer it above others because you can get skins and ribs here. We loved the extra wide green beans they cooked, too. Wilber's Barbecue is so famous that the city grand-fathered it into their new air quality controls. Wilber Shirley can continue to burn wood in his pits, but when he dies the restaurant must convert to gas cooking. Clean air laws don't pay much heed to history, or tourism. The Barbecue Division Line of Carolina "This is Wayne County, and we are the barbecue division line of Carolina. East of here everyone smokes with oak, west of here it's all hickory," Wilber told us. Wilber compromises. His chickens are oak smoked, but his pig (don't call it pork) is hickory smoked. Wilber's seats 325, up from 100 when he opened in 1962. He has 90 on staff, including four cooks who smoke whole pigs overnight. Wilber never uses anything except whole pigs, real wood and vinegar dip. He told us that 100-pound pigs are delivered directly from the slaughterhouse in nearby Nahunta and are smoked 10-12 hours, "depending on how much my cooks fall asleep." (Wro found many admirers, like this fellow in a colorful shirt)
He smokes 24 pigs a day, "40 on big days." Slaw is simply dressed in vinegar; sides include potato salad, slaw, mashed potatoes and green beans. Wilber lets us know he is a Democrat, and a North Carolina State fan, but tells us that President Bush and Tar Heel coaches were welcomed into his place just as warmly as President Clinton and Jimmy Valvano. He also told us he goes to Washington, D.C. two to four times a year to cook BBQ for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the North Carolina congressional delegation, and to lobby for Goldsboro, mainly for the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. That news set rockets off in Wro's imagination. Because he maintains a spot in his heart for "fighting men, in uniforms," Wro begged me to go to the base. To a nagged mother's delight, that turned out to be much easier than I anticipated. The base offers tours of all sorts to civilians…and their bears. There is even inexpensive lodging here for guests, as long as someone on the base sponsors them. Golf here costs a mere $20 too, with a cart. A Visit to Heritage Park Soon after entering, we saw Heritage Park, a work in progress, with a giant fountain and four jets in the "Missing Man Formation," which symbolizes the four squadrons stationed here. All the planes in the fountain were formerly used here - F4, F4 Phantom, etc. Wro began begging our tour guide and new friend, Robin Demark, to let him climb into a jet. To my amazement and his delight, she told him to wait for a newer fighter jet later in our tour. The base really impressed us. F15 pilots from the RAF, European allies and Saudi Arabia come here for training. New barracks look more like college, or the IBM campus, than how we pictured a base. The 77th Air Refueling Squadron, "3 Eagles," is stationed here, too. Their missions take place in the air at 350 - 400 MPH and only about 25 feet from the plane they refuel. One tanker can supply at least a dozen fighter planes. In a hangar, we saw F15s, which travel at half again the speed of sound, 35,000 feet high and cost $50 - $60 million, according to Tech Sergeant and Munitions Specialist Josh Green of Naples, Florida. Bunker Busting Bombs Josh showed us missiles and 5,000-pound bombs, called "bunker busters," because they can penetrate 100 feet deep in the earth. Wro asked if the cluster bombs weren't obsolete, "what with damage control and civilian collateral damage." "Yes, sir, they are," said Josh. "We have loaded jets of cluster bombs and turned around and unloaded them." Impressed though I was, I vowed to reduce the hours Wro spends watching wars on CNN. Guided bombs with video cameras, laser controls and rocket motors are the future, we learned. Interestingly, these sophisticated weapons could pass for WWII bombs physically. It was refreshing to know that somewhere in our culture, function is still more important than cosmetic style. Even if it was "bomb culture." Staff Sergeant and Weapons Specialist Tim Anderson of Prospect Park, Pensylvania showed us the GV10, "our most popular bomb, lots of bang for the buck, only cost $125,000 last I heard," he said, pointing out that bombs are shipped in "caskets," a euphemism that exploded with double meaning. Finally, Wro spied a 2-seat fighter jet and asked Josh to be his co-pilot. The boys climbed up into the jet's cockpit, and Wro saluted me before his imaginary take-off. (Wro, the brave little bear, gets ready for an imaginary take-off with Josh)
War machinery makes a mother hungry. I had heard legends about North Carolina's curb markets, a cottage industry of sorts in which home cooks are given public space to sell comfort food to take-out customers. As Wro and I have learned all over the South, home cooking is a lost art in the fast food era. People miss their greens and beans, the cornbread and fried okra of yesteryear. The Last Curb Market The Curb Market at the Wayne Center Auditorium is the last such market in North Carolina, a state that used to have dozens. It draws some of the best cooks I have met, anywhere. Eight ladies and their many assistants offer legendary southern cooking every Friday. Sarah Faison' s motto is "Just like Grandma used to make." We zeroed in on her when we noticed that some of the other cooks were buying Faison's foods. LaMuriel Sutton explained, "Now Mrs. Faison's fried chicken is just wonderful, although once in a great while she might have an off day, but her cornbread is addictive." Because our room at the Hampton Inn had a microwave and refrigerator, Wro and I did some serious shopping. Black eyed peas, lima beans, collard greens, turnip greens, corn bred, fried chicken, chicken pastry (which is called chicken and dumplings elsewhere), blueberry cobbler and lemon bread, all made their way into our shopping bags. In some cases we tried more than one version of dishes, too. "This lady came from San Francisco, we must show her that Wayne County ladies know how to cook, too," said Mrs. Sutton. They convinced me of that in the time it takes to recognize the smell of hot cornbread. Some of the dishes (lima beans aren't exactly Chinese), I wasn't sure about. But Wro said we needed to try them all. Good thing he controls me because not one crumb of anything went uneaten, and both of us still get teary eyed wondering how "Curb Markets" could be going the way of cluster bombs in modern America. Walking It All Off at the Feast in the East Since
we were eating so much food, we decided to walk it off at the Feast in the East.
Obviously, my thought process was also overloaded. After all, "The Feast"
is built around a BBQ cook-off. The club used a mixture of spices in their rub, which, after they won, suddenly became as secretive as a combat flight plan. All the teams stayed up all night watching their Q slow smoke while telling stories to each other. (Yes, it's Al King, da mayor! Al grew up in the Mt. Olive area)
Among the losers was Mayor Al King's office. The mayor told us he just loved being there. Like a good politician, he posed for a picture with Wro, who told him he was "cute, for a straight guy." Since I had come to help Gene Wiseman promote his shrimp and to do three cooking shows at the Feast, I needed to disengage from the pig wars. Gene's DJ&W Company is the first to raise fresh-water prawns in North Carolina. His Kenly shrimp farm is in what he calls "God's Country," northwest of town. Gene is a lovable rhinoceros of a man, who says that since his liver transplant 14 years ago, he has refined the art of hard charging into a personal philosophy. When we visited in late October, he had just harvested a year's crop of shrimp, so I was working with the freshest of fresh-water prawns. The shrimp farm had been drained, in order to make sure that no predator fish had found their sneaky way into the prawn ponds. Shrimp with a Deep Crusty Flavor Gene's
shrimp eat catfish meal and have a deep crusty flavor and soft meat that took
less time to cook than most other shrimp. Shrimp stock is another lost art. Most people today just throw away their shrimp shells...but not a good Chinese immigrants' daughter, nor her honeybear. We are true believers in the great American bisque, a tradition that developed in Atlantic and Gulf seaport restaurants, where shrimp shells were plentiful. Sadly, shrimp bisque is usually made from package starter kits these days, rather than from real stock. To show off DJ&W stock, we steamed my shrimp pot stickers in it, instead of in chicken stock. It worked out so well, I continue the practice back home now, when I can get thick fresh-shelled prawns. The Feast provided another food epiphany. In this part of America, people differentiate BBQ by pork skins, as in "Scott's sells skins, Wilber's don't." After the BBQ competition was judged, the MAR MAC Volunteer Fire Department cut and served 750 pounds of pig meat. That sold out in 90 minutes, but not before a few skins called my name. I double cleavered the skins into crisp granules and then sprinkled them over shrimp fried rice. Wro Names It "Goldsboro Salt" Wro named this new condiment "Goldsboro Salt," and it transformed the dish into something worth flying across an entire continent to taste. The audience applauded, and Sous Chef Wro was a hit once again. (Fresh water prawns fried rice with 'Goldsboro Salt')
As the fire brigade switched from pig to chicken (and went through $4,000 worth), a dear volunteer named Linda McLendon carried the exhausted Wroburlto around the fairgrounds. Wro showed his pink ribbon to the Purple Heart Survivors' Ann Shaw, who gave him a prize. (Below are Linda McLendon with Shirley. Linda carried the exhausted Wroburlto around the fairgrounds).
We
found Sarah Kearney selling her homemade jams and preserves and tried watermelon
rind jelly, "a real Carolina thing." Jamie Herrit sold skins, rinds, cracklings and candy apples, which he made "Carolina style," not with caramel and chocolate, but with caramelized cherry juice. Another booth sold R.L. Hunnicutt's Pig Pickin sauce, with an east Carolina cider vinegar base, but some west Carolina tomatoes added. Southern Hospitality Still Operative All that walking around made us hungry. Thankfully, we were in the place where Southern hospitality is still an operative battle plan in the tourist wars. Andrea Heekin invited us to her place, Billie's, which just happens to be the best fine dining establishment in Wayne County. Billie's, in a gorgeously remodeled Woolworth's, uses wood and brass, pressed tin ceilings and deep colors to give elegance a vintage look. Just as Goldsboro sits in the middle of contrasting styles of BBQ, October straddles two seasons of seafood. We were thus able to enjoy wonderful crab cakes as well as fresh oysters. For a break in the pig and crustacean routine, we also enjoyed Angus steaks and prime rib. As we slurped up dessert, Gene Wiseman exclaimed, "Boy, you sure know how to eat." "Now,
that beats the hell out of the alternative, doesn't it?" replied Wro. At Bentonville Battleground State Historic Site you can walk where 80,000 Union and Confederate soldiers fought one of the last major battles of the Civil War. Tour the nearby Harper House, where wounded from both sides were treated in an improvised hospital. A visitor center contains exhibits and artifacts from the battlefields. It also features a fiber-optic map and an audio-visual program. Trails and canoe trips, including a spook trail, are offered at Cliffs of the Neuse State Park. Glenwood Farms' 100-acres showcase different aspects of North Carolina agriculture: seasonal crops grown in fields, livestock sheltered in pastures and petting zoo, and an aquaculture display in the fish house. Glenwood Farms also offers different activities according to the season of the year. You can reach the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base Public Affairs Office at (919) 722-0027, or visit www.seymourjohnson.af.mil. For
general information about tourism to North Carolinia, visit www.visitnc.com. Billie's
Backstreet Restaurant (Click
below for more travel stories).
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