LEXINGTON, South Carolina—Republican front-runner poked fun at northern states at an unscheduled campaign stop to Hudson's Smokehouse here.
"That's what Yankees feel barbecue is: a hot dog or a hamburger on the grill," he said after stepping off his bus to greet owner Robin Hudson,
"I’m not a catfish man — a fish man," Romney said while touring the vinegar-infused smokehouse. "I eat it because I’m told it’s good for me. But I still like pulled pork and pulled chicken more.”
"Why don't we have more barbecue in the north?" the former Massachusetts governor added.
Romney visited the restaurant in 2008, and joked today that "I come back every four years whether you like it or not."
"I wanna see my friends turn green, but I can't," Romney said to Hudson about the press through a cloud of noxious vinegar vapors and smoke. "We're gonna smoke these guys." Romney then delivered dinner to the press bus, asking where on the crowded bus strewn with gear he should place the trays of food.
Romney's dinner according to the campaign: A pulled pork sandwich, with baked beans, and cole slaw.