Illustrations by Emily Wallace
The buttery yellow exterior of Mom’s Grill in Washington is an apt advertisement for the golden biscuits baked inside. True to eastern North Carolina tradition, each comes stuffed with a thick wedge of melted sharp Cheddar.
Take a hint from the ampersand in B&B Food Store’s name. Yes, you could simply order fried chicken or just a tray of “taters.” But there’s something magical about the combo — the way the flavors mingle in the Hildebran mini mart’s warming case.
For roadside assistance that’s better than jumper cables, a tire iron, or a map, there’s the blazing orange Nab. Lance’s cheese-and-peanut butter crackers are available at nearly every convenience mart in North Carolina — and with good reason. They’re cheap, dependable, and just plain good.
Under a gas station’s fluorescent lights, jarred pickles have a gorgeous glow — from olive-green half-sour cukes to vibrant pink sausage links. Aside from the latter, the pickle jar is also perhaps the best place to find a vegetable, and a perfect foil for fried chicken.
Any gas station worth its salt (and a lot of it) keeps a crock steaming with hot boiled peanuts. That gas station knows, too, to have a stack of Styrofoam cups and a full sleeve of napkins at the ready.
For the discerning road hog’s palate, there’s Carolina Country Snacks’ fatback skins, deep-fried in Henderson and distributed across the state. Cooked in lard, these chicharrones are extra crunchy (read: extra satisfying).
More than a century old, Salisbury’s Cheerwine soft drink company predates the proliferation of cars, interstates, and gas stations. But the cherry soda is an excellent console companion — with a jolt of caffeine, extra carbonation, and its cheery cherry tang.
The crust of a Winston-Salem-made B&G hand pie (made with lard!) is perfectly suited for roadside convenience. But the paper sleeve isn’t bad for an extra layer of protection, especially when it comes to B&G’s five gooey fillings: apple, peach, cherry, lemon, and chocolate.
At the Hasty Mart in La Grange, a small sign in the gas station window boasts “Internationally Famous Hot Dogs.” It’s big bravado, but hot dogs are known for roadside hyperbole — even when, as The Grocery Bag in Clayton claims, they’re “almost famous.”
For an A-to-Z exploration of the foods that fuel us, look for Emily Wallace’s Road Sides: An Illustrated Companion to Dining and Driving in the American South in your local bookstore.
Split-rail fences don’t shout “keep out.” They lean, they shift, they invite. And in western North Carolina, they remind us that some lines are meant to hold, not harden.
Each May, spring climbs nearly 3,000 feet to the seat of Alleghany County. Here, as the rhododendrons blush, a beloved mountain town welcomes visitors with its food, art, and flourish of color and creativity.
Brief but delicious, soft-shell crab season is cherished by diners as well as the folks who work around the clock to put these native pinchers on our plates.
When it comes to poultry, the best is raised close to home.
