Evan Randall Smith on Facebook 7/22, writing about the food at a gathering near him:
(#1) ERS: Oklahoma is about to get a taste of North Carolina at a pool party today with some traditional red and white coleslaw offerings.
From the Southern Living site on “South Carolina Slaw”:
(#2) photo: Will Dickey; food stylist: Ruth BlackburnA good Carolina slaw has a sweet and tangy vinegar dressing, not a mayo-based one. This slaw uses apple cider vinegar and two kinds of mustard for extra tang.
… When prepared as a sandwich, Carolina-style barbecue is usually served with [this] slaw as a garnish atop the meat. It also makes for a tasty accompaniment to any entree.
Now, on the vocabulary. From my 6/14/12 posting “Cole slaw”, on the OED‘s treatment of cole slaw:
From the beginning, then, we have cold slaw as a spelling for the dish, indicating a reinterpretation of the first element in the Dutch original (for a dish served as a cold salad). Then we see the truncation of cole slaw to slaw, cole slaw being at first the only dish called slaw. And then the extension of slaw to hot dishes made with sliced cabbage.
The final development is not represented in OED2’s citations, but it’s nicely illustrated in a NYT food column by Mark Bittman from last September, “Shred Your Inhibitions and Embrace a Surprising Slaw” (recipes here). Slaws eight ways
… Bittman explains that he’s extending the word slaw:
if you expand the notion of slaw to include any vegetable that can benefit from the same kind of treatment — shred it, toss it with dressing (mayo-based or not) and serve whenever — you can call that slaw.
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