When Chemists Attack

The last time I visited Holt Lake Seafood and BBQ, I got the seafood. This time, however, I decided to bite the bullet and get a BBQ plate. There’s no buffet line (so no seconds), but I’d had a big lunch already.

I got the small BBQ plate ($5.25, with an extra $1.15 for tea) and two sides: baked potato and potato salad. (This makes me a potato addict, or so Patty says. What can I say, though? The potato salad here is really good.)

The small BBQ plate at Holt Lake

As you can see, the small plate has a decent amount of meat on it. I’m not sure how much larger the “large” plate is.

BBQ at Holt Lake is (of course) pork, but this BBQ is cooked in a vinegar and pepper sauce. If you’re used to the smoked BBQ you find in many parts of South Carolina, this will be a bit of a culture shock. It’s the same style of BBQ you would find in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.

I’m not a big vinegar fan, and I find some vinegar-cooked BBQ to be almost inedible. Holt Lake’s BBQ is slightly spicy, but the vinegar isn’t overbearing. (At some places in the Pee Dee, I’ve been tempted to bring pH paper to test the acidity of the BBQ!) If you are a vinegar fan, though, don’t worry. You can pour on more spicy vinegar sauce at the table, and Holt Lake offers their sauce for sale for $2.50 a bottle.

One other thing I should mention is the Brunswick stew.

The Brunswick stew at Holt Lake

There is a controversy over the origins of Brunswick stew – which I’m not going to get into in this post. Several states claim to be the first to make it. If you’re looking for something to substitute for hash and rice, though, this Brunswick stew is what you should get. While it doesn’t look exactly like the hash you’d get from a typical South Carolina BBQ place, it tastes almost the same.

So pig out!