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Mention barbecue in North Carolina, and people still tend to line up behind the old standards: eastern-style pork with a vinegar sauce or western-style, tomato-based sauce.
But there's more to Charlotte barbecue, says Tom Hanchett, staff historian at the Levine Museum of the New South. To prove it, the museum will offer samples to curiosity seekers during its annual New South BBQ Tour.
The tour bus rolls out again Friday and Saturday for local barbecue inspired by the Far East, Caribbean and Latin America.
This year, the bus is running on its own gas.
After three years piggy-backing as an aside to the glitzy Charlotte Shout Culinary Arts Experience, the museum's fourth barbecue event stands alone.
The Culinary Arts Experience - with its show-quality cooking demonstrations and celebrity chef roster - was a no-show this year due to the recession.
With strong local interest in fall culinary events, Hanchett is optimistic that the museum's staff can fill its bus seats for the barbecue tour without the lift of its partner.
The goal is to get about 100 riders - about twice as many as last year - over two dates.
The barbecue tour comes a month after Taste of the World, a showcase of east Charlotte's international restaurants but without a barbecue theme, which sold out again this year.
Taste of the World's organizer, Eastland Area Strategies Team, started the event in 2004 and filled nine buses for its seventh tour on Oct. 8. Each bus held about 22 people, some from as far as Matthews, Davidson, Huntersville and Lake Wylie. There was a waiting list for seats from last-minute cancellations, said Louise Barden, founding member of the Taste of the World Committee.
"The east side is such a rich, cultural stew," Hanchett said. "The more ways that folks in Charlotte can discover it, the more vibrant a culture we will realize we have."
The museum staff is promoting the barbecue tour by e-mail, on the museum's Web site and through its newsletter. The museum hopes to break even on the event if it sells all of the seats
The real value in the event is that Hanchett can tell a story about the diversity that has taken root in Charlotte. That fits with the museum's goal of providing the nation with a comprehensive interpretation of post-Civil War southern society.
Hanchett said touring Charlotte's international districts offers a glimpse at history in the making. More than 9 percent of Mecklenburg County's population was foreign born in 2008 and the number is growing, according to the U.S. Census.
The tour also helps visitors and longtime residents gain a sense of direction in east Charlotte's international restaurant district, as Hanchett has over the years.
"A lot of them are like me - a little uncomfortable going into a new situation," Hanchett said of past participants. "Once they go on the tour, they go back (to the restaurants). They know that they'll be welcomed, and they know that the food is good."
This year, the tour samples include a bowl of vermicelli noodles with Vietnamese-style roasted pork from Ben Thanh, Salvadoran pork-and cheese-filled papusas (corn pancakes) from El Pulgarcito, jerk chicken with peas and rice from Taste of the Caribbean, and Mexican-style barbecued lamb and pork tacos from Cocina Latina.
Susan Dosier had been in Charlotte less than two years when she took her husband and two daughters on the barbecue tour two years ago. The former Southern Living magazine food editor for has a keen appreciation for food. Yet she tends to stay close to neighborhoods that are familiar when dining out.
She was surprised by the diversity of ethnic groups represented at Charlotte restaurants.
"Central Avenue is like a United Nations of restaurant locations," Dosier said. "This is such a completely different look at Charlotte food."
Her favorite was Ben Thanh, a five-year-old Vietnamese restaurant. It is family owned, as are all of the restaurants on the tour.
Hanchett is "so respectful of the owners of those businesses," Dosier said. "It's a friend bringing friends to the restaurant."
