A collard sandwich and, yes, I got a pig picking cake

This East Coast Greenway trip was surprisingly light on barbecue. Based on a sample size of one barbecue restaurant, the eastern Carolina style of vinegar sauce may not be my thing anyway. I did discover collard sandwiches, which apparently is what fieldhands brought for lunch. I’m hoping it’s usually better than what I tried.

The collards just felt really overcooked and a soupy mess. One of the riders from the Triangle area says you should want to eat that collard liquid, so if you didn’t, the collards probably came from a can. They were sandwiched between two pieces of cornbread — deep-fried, crispy cornbread. I could have seen pan-fried to help keep it together, but this…

On the side were two strips of fatback, basically pg fat. I think they were fried too.

So vegetables, yes. Healthy? Doubtful.

This is what the barbecue plate looked like — lot of meat (half a pound?), hush puppies (think cornmeal mixed with a few other ingredients and deep fried — yes, more fried food) and my two sides, in this case collard greens and baked beans. Chris had the candied yams and, no surprise, they were incredibly sweet.

And then there’s that pig picking cake that I have wanted to try ever since that bakery stop on the first day. I found it at  Burney’s Sweets and More, whose reputation goes beyond Elizabethtown. I’m not sure it had mandarin oranges, but crushed pineapple was definitely in that frosting (not a buttercream frosting, so I am going with another rider’s guess — what he calls grease frosting.) The recipes I have found call for a box of yellow cake mix. I don’t know if this was a mix or made from scratch, but it was certainly yellow.

Interestingly, not all of the Carolinians on the ride had heard of it.

Was it great? No. (Of course, it lacked that key ingredient of deep dark chocolate.) Did we demolish it? Yes.

Here’s something else I found at Burney’s: I think it’s their fried croissant. I’m telling myself it was healthier than the doughnuts offered in that bare-bones Knights Inn breakfast. At least there was chocolate. And I only had one.

I don’t know when I last ate so much fried food. Should I be surprised that 30.1% of North Carolinians are obese, ranking the state 22nd in the nation?

Author: alliumstozinnias

A gardener (along with the Brit) who has discovered there is more than hybrid tomatoes. And a cyclist. View all posts by alliumstozinnias