" What is this?" Emily asked, looking in the largest Styrofoam container. There was a bunch of dry-looking chopped meat inside.
"Barbecue."
"This isn't barbecue," Emily said. "Barbecue is hot dogs and hamburgers on a grill."
Vance laughed, which automatically made Emily smile. "Ha! Blasphemy! In North Carolina, barbecue means pork, child. Hot dogs and hamburgers on a grill- that's called, 'cooking out' around here," he explained with sudden enthusiasm. "And there are two types of North Carolina barbecue sauce-Lexington and Eastern North Carolina. Here, look." He excitedly found a container of sauce and showed her, accidentally spilling some on the table. "Lexington-style is the sweet sugar-and-tomato-based sauce, some people call it the red sauce, that you put on chopped or pulled pork shoulder. Julia's restaurant is Lexington-style. But there are plenty of Eastern North Carolina-style restaurants here. They use a thin, tart, vinegar-and-pepper based sauce. And, generally, they use the whole hog. But no matter the style, there's always hush puppies and coleslaw. And, if I'm not mistaken, those are slices of Milky Way cake. Julia makes the best Milky Way cakes."
"Like the candy bar?"
"Yep. The candy bars are melted and poured into the batter. It means 'Welcome.'"
Emily looked over to the cake Julia had brought yesterday morning, still on the counter. "I thought an apple stack cake meant 'Welcome.'"
"Any kind of cake means 'Welcome,'" he said. "Well, except for coconut cake and fried chicken when there's a death."
Emily looked at him strangely.
"And occasionally a broccoli casserole," he added. "

― Sarah Addison Allen , The Girl Who Chased the Moon