Smokn' Pig- Valdosta, GA

I chose this place because it is the place Madisonians go to get BBQ when they are in Valdosta.  Many of my friends and family who still live there “tag” themselves on FB when they eat there.   I have had a desire to go there when I go home to visit my folks, but I usually miss Ken’s so much, and it’s just so much closer. But, I get it now.  This place is pretty good, better than Sonny’s, but not quite among the best BBQ I’ve ever had.  My parents met us for lunch and were more than happy to offer me bites so that I could taste the goodies they had, too.  Because I am on a mission and I do NOT intend on carrying this experiment on my hips for the rest of my life, I tried to keep it light.  I ordered the ¼ chicken dark, Brunswick stew (small serving), and unsweetened tea – this works as a pretty good palate cleanser between bites.  The meal comes with a trip to the salad bar – I got about a tablespoon of the carrot raisin salad.    My mom got a serving of fried okra that I sampled; Dad got ribs, I had a bite; and I sampled a little of the sliced pork and sliced brisket. 

Best they had to offer: The Brunswick stew.  Off the chain!  It has a lovely tomato base with some of the Smokin Pig brand Carolina BBQ sauce (my best guess), nice chunks of tomato, corn, peas. The base was thin; a little soupier than I am used to, but it worked. The BBQ sauce was very balanced in the stew and I believe there was smoked chicken and some type of smoked pork (maybe ham?).  Both gave the stew a mild smoky flavor. 

The meats: All of the meat is pecan smoked.  I sampled a bite of each meat sans sauce.  The only meat I ate with sauce was my chicken, which consequently was also the only meat of which I had more than one bite.  My favorite was the rib meat, it retained a lot of smoky flavor and prior to smoking it had been lightly dusted with paprika and maybe a little brown sugar, salt, and pepper.  The meat was super tender and very moist. My second favorite was the brisket, which they billed as “Texas” style. While it was tasty, I’ve been to Texas, and Texas it was not.  I thought it was more consistent with SoGa/NoFlo BBQ.  It was a little drier on the non-fatty side of the meat than I would have preferred, but it retained a lot of the smoke flavor and was perfectly seasoned. The sliced pork was not good to me.  My husband ordered it and enjoyed it, but it was definitely my least favorite – under seasoned, pale, dry, rather bland and retained little of that great pecan smoke flavor the other meats had.  In fact, I thought they had mistakenly given him turkey. Being form St Louis, my husband sees BBQ-ed meat as a vessel for good sauce…  I enjoyed the chicken. I chose the thigh quarter because thighs stay moist, duh.  The chicken retained less smoke flavor than the brisket and ribs, but the skin was taut and slightly crisp with the same seasoning as the ribs.  The seasoning gave it a nice mild sweet, smoky flavor.  I ate most of it with the mustard sauce, which I personally thought complimented it best. 

The sides:

Brunswick stew.  Like I said, really good.  If I went back I would probably just get a big bowl of the stew.  Carrot raisin salad.  It was good; carrots were not too soggy, nice creamy sweet and sour sauce.  The brown sugar in the sauce was very obvious.  Nice touch with the apples.  The only thing that disappointed me was the use of pre-cut carrots out of a bag.  Would have been better if the carrots had been freshly grated, otherwise a solid attempt at a Southern classic.  Fried okra.  I confess, I had a few bites of okra.  The think about okra is that you either love it, or you hate it.  And I LOVE okra, in all of its forms.  This was nice and crispy and perfectly seasoned.  BBQ beans. Just okay.  But then again, I am not a huge fan of BBQ baked beans.  I like my baked beans sweet with brown sugar and bacon.  These were exactly what I expected from a SoGa/NoFlo BBQ joint, lots of BBQ sauce and tendrils of smoked meat.  Corn bread.

The Sauces: Too many sauces and not made in house.  I guess I have gotten spoiled.  Lately, I have been eating at BBQ places that make their sauces in house.  These tasted bottled.  My favorite was the Southern Mustard.  I thought it complimented the meat the best.  

Overall, Smokn' Pig was pretty good.  It would definitely be worth the trip up to Valdosta the next time I am visiting my mom and dad.  I'll make sure to give it a positive review on Yelp and Urban Spoon.