Saturday, October 10, 2009

Little Pigs BBQ - Asheville, NC

You might have noticed I haven't been cooking much the past few days. We've had one thing after another and today's "thing" was a wedding in Black Mountain, NC.

On our way back, we stopped at Little Pig BBQ in Asheville. It's located on the corner of MacDowell and Doctors Ln near the Biltmore Estate.

Little Pigs is housed in an unassuming brick building. You can see the pit from where you order and that's a pretty sure sigh you're getting genuine BBQ, not baked, boiled, or roasted pork. Be advised that they are "cash only" but they do have an ATM on site.

A chalkboard menu lists their offerings, a standard smokehouse menu of pulled pork, ribs, chicken, and sides. You can get the usual sandwiches, plates, or bulk take out.

One notable difference is that they serve broasted chicken instead of smoked. Broaster chicken is a crispy pressure deep fried chicken that has always been juicy when I've had it. Not sure why a BBQ joint would sell broasted chicken, instead of smoked.

When we arrived at the ordering station, they were pulling two shoulders (picnics, not butts) so we ordered pork sandwiches and onion rings. Their pork comes topped with slaw and sauce unless you say otherwise while ordering.

I tried a plain piece of pork first. Cooked right with a tender texture but not mushy. The amount of smoke was just about right.

As a sandwich, the slaw, sauce and pork were balanced well in taste and texture. We both really like the slaw.

They have two sauces on the table. The red sauce is a Piedmont style sauce that was okay. Neither good nor bad, just okay. The South Carolina style golden mustard sauce had the expected twang to it. We both enjoyed it and even dipped our onion rings in it.

Speaking of onion rings, theirs have a cornmeal batter, something I'm not used to. They were cooked well, but I just prefer flour based batters. That's just a personal preference, nothing wrong with their rings.

So Little Pigs BBQ was good enough that I'd come back to try their other items the next time we're in Asheville.

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