Up the Beach

Flip's Bar-B-Que House
5818 Oleander Drive
Wilmington, NC

There's a bear in there! A sign says to keep your damned hands off, but its bare ass tells me, too little too late. The fur has gotten fairly sparse on its rump. Unlike me. My buddy Sarah tells me she remembers that bear from when she was a kid...and she's got a kid of her own.

This is about as East Carolina as you can get. In fact, I ate here after a trip to the beach for the inaugural stop on my voyage. I informed the young lady working that I was on a barbeque tour of the States, and would like to sample the establishment's most typical dish. Somehow, she kept her cool and recommended the minced pork plate. I rounded it out with fried squash, Brunswick stew and hush puppies. The squash was fine...I mean hell, it was fried. The stew was an inoffensive conglomeration of potatoes, corn, beans and the like in a tomato broth. It was the hush puppies that really caught my eye. First, I was surprised to see hush puppies at a barbeque joint. On the other hand, this is a beach town, and there are model ships on the wall. Still, they were like no hush puppies I'd seen before. I grew up getting them at catfish joints and Long John's...round balls of cornmeal batter with bits of onion and maybe green pepper inside. These looked like something that would come out of a large and perhaps chemically relaxed cat. What can I say? They're turd-shaped. Fortunately, they're not turd-flavored as well. Ok...i'm grossing myself out. Suffice it to say they were deliciously crispy and a little sweet.

As for the meat. Carolina. Vinegar based. No sauce offered nor given. Minced describes it well. Off the bone, cut and cut again across the grain, stopping something short of pureed. The vinegar treatment cut through the heaviness of hush puppies and squash. Tasty, though lacking variety in texture, it was something of a one-note symphony.

Word is that Flip's has seen better days. Most folks coming to the beach want seafood, my friends tell me. Still, here I got my first glimpse of regionality I left the house for. Hush puppies and Brunshwick stew. Who knew?

Thanks, Flip's.