After meals 2 and 3 in rapid succession at Dolan’s and Vandy’s, it was good to have a drive before we arrived at Smokin’ Pig in Midway for meal 4. One of the joys and dangers of using Keith McLendon as a food guide is that he keeps thinking of additional restaurants to visit. We’d started with a reasonable list of 3-4 restaurants per day, and here we were stopping at our fourth a little after noon. I think this was the third he hadn’t mentioned. The pace was dangerous but the food was great.
Smokin’ Pig is a good-looking spot off I-95 at 13711 East Oglethorpe Highway.
It has friendly people and a pleasant interior,
plus two huge surprises on the menu.
No fried foods! Can you imagine? And turnip greens rather than collards. The two signs were a license to order a plate rather than split a sandwich, and I chose a pork plate with turnip greens and Brunswick stew.
We need a closer look.
The pork had been pulled very fine before being chopped, and the predictable result was that it was a touch dry. After ascertaining that the flavor and aroma of wood cooked pork were there, I added some sauce.
Both the spicy vinegar and the hot mustard sauce were well conceived and added value to the pork. The former was a good vinegar pepper sauce and the latter was one of the better mustard sauces I’ve tried. The Texas Pete pepper sauce was a fine pepper vinegar sauce that perks up Southern style vegetables beautifully, and I really added it to the photo to illustrate the difference between “vinegar pepper” barbecue sauce and “pepper vinegar” sauce, which is simply vinegar flavored by hot peppers.
The turnip greens were terrific. They add a peppery flavor to the earthiness of collards, and lean toward arugula or mustard greens while collards tilt toward cabbage. I like both, but I’ll prefer turnip greens every day. The Brunswick stew had a substantial vegetable presence like Vandy’s along with the hashed meat of Brinson’s and Dolan’s. I enjoyed it.
Smokin’ Pig was another hit, and this one will get a spot on The Best Places to eat near I-95 between Washington and Key West when I get around to updating it. As the menu says, everything is home made, and the absence of fried foods on at least one of your stops on the drive down is certainly a plus, and unless McCabe’s is open, I think it’s the only stop where you can get turnip greens. The food is good, the people are nice, the food is fresh, cheap, and ready quickly. Definitely give Smokin’ Pig a try.
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