But you have 3 styles alone in north carolina. Western uses a red sauce as a base (basically tomato based), eastern is the vinegar based (which if that is all you have had i can see why you would say stay away from nc barbecue. That is an aquired taste. Rare that people like both.) There is technically a third style though i think it is part of the piedmont/lexongton/western where there is no sauce as a base. Just spices. Also if you had eastern it was probably chopped not pulled. Pulled is far better.
But you're talking about East and West Carolina sauce. He said stay away from North and South. Spoiler
Today I had a 2 whole branzino cooked in the oven with olive oil, salt/pepper, lemon and mushrooms, some broiled potatoes, salad, and crepes (Finnish lettu) for desert.
We're helping. He hasn't had anything to eat for the last two days because we're not very good at helping, but we're helping dammit.