Image Credits: Wikimedia; licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Sharing is caring!
Alabama’s White Sauce BBQ Chicken
Most people think of red barbecue sauce when they picture Southern cooking, but Alabama threw me the ultimate curveball. I discovered that Alabama’s unique contribution to the art form is a creamy, mayonnaise-based white sauce served over smoked chicken, and if you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone: white sauce is rarely found outside Alabama.
The first bite literally made me stop in my tracks. Bob Gibson, the founder of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, is credited with having invented white sauce back in 1925, and his original Decatur location has been making it ever since. This tangy, almost ranch-like creation completely transformed my understanding of barbecue. It was like discovering a secret that the entire state of Alabama had been keeping for nearly a century.
Vermont’s Maple-Everything Revolution
I thought I knew maple syrup until I hit Vermont. Sure, I’d drizzled the store-bought stuff on pancakes, but Vermont takes their maple game to an entirely different level. Vermont produces dark and amber Vermont maple syrup, smoked maple syrup, rye whiskey barrel-aged Vermont organic maple syrup, maple candy, and maple butter…