Smoking Pig BBQ and the Paleo Diet

The Paleo Diet is more of a lifestyle, a way of eating that is in line with what humans ate prior to the Agricultural Revolution, when we were hunter/gatherers.  It is uniquely suited to humans and matches perfectly with how we are designed to function as a species.  A lot of Crossfit people eat the Paleo Diet because of its superior health benefits.

This way of eating is pretty simple:  Meat, Seafood, Fruits and Veggies. 

Fortunately, Smoking Pig BBQ serves these items in abundance!  Pulled Pork, Chicken, Brisket and even Ribs are great choices for the Paleo Diet.  Did you know we have an extensive fresh salad menu?  All of our salads are fresh made daily in house and come with home-made dressings (Ranch, Bleu Cheese, Soy Sesame Vinaigrette).  Our salads can be served with Paleo-Friendly fresh smoked Chicken, Brisket or Pulled Pork as well.

A great Paleo choice is Southern Greens.  Fresh collards, kale and Swiss Chard, washed, chopped and cooked with a taste of pork, this popular side dish is packed with vitamins and minerals.

I enjoy the fresh ground sausage burger with smoked veggies on top, hold the bun.  Served with a couple slices of bacon and a nice garlic aioli sauce, this is another fairly good choice for those interested in experimenting with Paleo.

While our catfish is lightly dusted in cornmeal, it’s still fish!

And then, when you’re done, you can enjoy a nice slice of Peanut Butter Pie as a reward for your great eating plan!

Till next time.

Paul

Consistency and Quality

So here we are doing our second entry into the blogosphere.  Does this make me a 'pundit'?

Someone told me early on that consistency was a key factor in restaurant success.  I have come to appreciate those remarks to a degree I never would have thought possible the day I first heard them.

Our customers are quite discerning.  They know if the brisket or ribs or any other thing is 'right' or not.  In my opinion, there is no 'getting by' for us.  It's either right or not.  Let's look at some of the variables associated with consistency in BBQ.

First, there's the meat.  We use certified Angus beef for our brisket, and top quality suppliers for ribs and pork buts.  Also we use jumbo Halal legs for our chicken and what we feel are the best links locally made.  But that's not all.  We hand select our ribs by weight so that we can have uniform size, as far as possible.

Next there's the prep.  That has to do with how I make the rub and if my prep cooks are doing things they way they have been trained to do them.  This affects the amount of fat on the brisket, the composition and evenness of the rub, the size and shape of the ribs and the moisture or lack thereof in the pork butts.

Then comes the cooking.  Since we're cooking with natural fire, there are more variables in this part of the process than almost anywhere else.  First, the wood has to be appropriately seasoned.  We use a slightly greener wood than most in order to get enough smoke on the meat.  Dry wood just won't lay as much flavor down.  Wood supply is not all that consistent in this regard, so we have to manage that as best we can.

Next is the ambient and internal temperatures.  Is it cold or hot outside?  Are the smokers running hotter or colder?  Are they holding temperature?  Fortunately, we now cook on the finest smokers God has allowed man to cook meat on.  Not cheap, but they hold temperature perfectly and require little in terms of watching the temperature gauge.  The also have the side benefit of burning less fuel.

After that, there is the critical judgement call of pulling the meat when it's done.  Not before, not after.  Just at that sweet spot.  There are various tests we use for the cooks.  I can eyeball it and get it right most of the time.  But we have multiple shifts and a number of people now responsible for this task.  I've seen my senior guy have it right for months and months, then lose it, pulling the meat when it's overdone.  It requires constant vigilance and training.  And each piece of meat is a test.  Each one has to be perfect for us to have perfect consistency at the plate.

With BBQ, we don't cook to order, obviously, since our minimum cook time is 90 minutes for the chicken and upwards 12 to 16 house for brisket.  So, how we hold the meat is another challenge altogether.  It must be warm, but not to the point where the food continues to cook.  A real balancing act because we never know how many folks are going to come in and which items are going to move the fastest.  This is also why BBQ joints run out of food.  If you get a run on something, there's just no recovery.  If you're out by 6 PM, your out for the night.    4 1/2 hours to get ribs back.

Also, this meat cools off really fast, so, once it's plated it has to go to the table immediately, where it continues to cool.  This caused us a lot of grief for some time until we mandated that the bell has top priority.  Now it's better but still an issue to a degree.

With all the challenges, we thrive on managing the variables as best as humanly possible to bring you the highest quality meal we can, each and every time.  We humbly recognize we are all too human and we will fail from time to time.  Should that happen, we sincerely hope you will bring it to our attention and allow us to remedy the situation.

Thank you for reading and for being a loyal customer!

Paul

Welcome to my blog!

Well, it appears that everybody has a blog so, why not?  I'm thinking it's yet another great way to connect with fans of Blues, Brews, and most importantly, BBQ.  Hopefully we will be able to also have a comments section so it can be interactive.  This is important since I have learned more about BBQ from customers and friends than I ever knew myself.

So, here on my first post as a newly minted blogger, I think I'll start by sharing what got this place going.

I was introduced to BBQ by my father.  I think he did one BBQ in the 17 years I lived at home.  Actually, it was grilling.   I'd never had burnt chicken before and it was a real eye-opener.  Thankfully, that was the end of that.  I don't remember seeing the little grill around after that either.

Later, I purchased the obligatory Weber and tried my hand at chicken.  I knew that good BBQ had sauce, so I dipped the chicken in sauce and put it on the grill.  Fortunately the grill was not located under any trees or near any buildings.  The flames were beautiful as the drippings ignited  on the coals and the flames reached the sugar in the BBQ sauce on the chicken and it was off to the races from there.

Armed with this knowledge, I modified my technique and always kept a spray bottle of water handy to put out the flames.  Brilliant.  The chicken was still awful, but at least the neighbors were safe.

So for several years (like 20) if found other things to do besides backyard BBQ.  I have always enjoyed cooking, actually, always wanted to really do it well.  I am a natural born host and nothing rewards me like delivering a feeling of well-being to others.  I knew that a great way to do that was through food.

Somehow, maybe by reading cookbooks, I was exposed to the difference between grilling and BBQ.  There are two more personality quirks I have in addition to my affinity for being a host.  I'm very interested in the origins of things.  Where did this word originate?  Where did this idea come from?  Who invented this and how did they come to do it?  The second quirk is, the more complex a subject is, the more interested in it I become, to a point.

So when I discovered that BBQ is not grilling, it's cooking with indirect heat and flavoring with spice and smoke, well, I was hooked.  I built a back yard smoker, a "double barrel" type.  Fire in the bottom barrel and the cooking chamber in the top barrel.  Wood burning.  Did ribs, pork butts and turkeys, of all things.  Long story short, got great feedback, which I was highly skeptical of since I had no idea what I was doing, and it was consistently good feedback so I decided to do some catering, some parties and some turkeys for Thanksgiving.  It was fun and people seemed to like it.

Then, when the current recession finally caught up with me and I got laid off, I decided to go for it and try my luck at running a restaurant, something I've always wanted to do.  Fortunately my wife, Jessica, was fully supportive of this.  I had expected a great deal of resistance but I couldn't have asked for a better response than I got from her.  Spent a year on the business plan, picked up a huge smoker and took it from there.  Got plenty of mentoring and advice from the BBQ community too.  Invaluable.  (The world of BBQ has some of the most generous, wonderful people you'd ever want to meet and I'm eternally grateful to them for their encouragement and help early on.)

Found this place, wrote my check and figured I'd be out of business and filing Bankruptcy in 6 months or so.  That's the fate of the vast majority of restaurants and I fully expected that to be my fate as well.  Through good fortune and the support of you wonderful customers, things have come out totally opposite my expectations.  For that I thank you!

Currently we're Best of Yelp (please help us stay there!) and Tripadvisor has us as the #4 spot in the whole city, according to travelers who have rated us.  We have also been recommended in the 213 Michelin Guide, Bay Area and Napa Valley.

Next time, we'll talk a little more about BBQ and maybe some Blues too!

Thanks for reading.

Paul

Product Descriptions

Descriptions of Items on Our Menu

RIBS
Covered with our secret recipe rub then slow smoked for 4-6 hours over hardwood oak and apple woods to ‘melt-in-your-mouth’ perfection.  Help yourself to the sauce of your choice.

BEEF BRISKET
Rubbed with our secret brisket rub then slow smoked 12-14 hours over hardwood oak and apple woods to a very tender and flavorful experience.  Served stand alone, as a sandwich or in our famous meat combos, this juicy brisket is an explosion of flavor.  Add the sauce of your choice tableside.

PULLED PORK
Made from fresh pork shoulder roast, coated in custom pork rub then slow smoked for 10-12 hours over apple and oak hardwoods until it literally falls apart. Hand pulled and served in our sandwiches and famous multi-meat combos, you will never forget the flavor of this wonderful BBQ dish.

CHICKEN
Halves, Quarters and Thighs are cooked in the smoker which brings you exceptional tenderness and flavor.  Help yourself to the sauce of your choice tableside.

GENUINE LOUISIANA HOT LINKS
Straight from the Bayou.  Hot and delicious, cooked slowly over smoke and served with one side dish and fresh baked cornbread.

COLE SLAW
Don’t let the humble history of this dish fool you.  We hand craft our dressing and chop the cabbage every day.  This will be the best slaw you ever ate.  Guaranteed.

BBQ BEANS
We can’t reveal our secrets when it comes to our beans.  Suffice it to say they are like no other both in the hand crafting of this dish and the cooking techniques!  Enjoy!

DESSERTS
All desserts are hand made here in our kitchen and are chef’s choice daily.