With familial
ties in Mississippi, Alabama and other deep south states, Big Mama has a
close personal relationship with barbecue and with soul food. Now
she's introducing Albuquerque to the cuisine with which we fell in love
when we lived in Mississippi for nearly eight years.
Big Mama is Cheryl Smith, one of the
proprietors of a barbecue and soul food restaurant ensconced in a
timeworn shopping strip on Central just east of Wyoming. Her tiny
restaurant even looks and feels like a
restaurant in Mississippi. You won't find red and white checkered
cloth tablecloths adorning oak tables. There are no cute ceramic pig figurines on the
counter nor will you be subjected to country music blaring from a tinny stereo.
In fact, you won't find any of the
stereotypical trappings that typify many (particularly chain) barbecue
restaurants.
Instead, Big Mama's is
relatively austere in its decor. Bingo hall style tables and
folding chairs are your accommodations and paper plates and plastic
dinnerware constitutes your dining accoutrements. There's a simple
ordering protocol--walk up to the counter, peruse the finger-stained
menu and the specials scrawled on the blackboard, pay the tally and take
a seat. This is no four-star restaurant (at least in conventional
circles).
What it is, is a family
owned, family operated gem lovingly serving authentic Southern style
barbecue and soul food. That means hearty portions of down-home
cooking from recipes which have been handed down through the
generations. That means sweet ice tea, pans of gravy, Crisco fried
foods (even...or maybe especially the vegetables) and pork, lots of it.
You'll be salivating
lustily long before the huge portions of artery-clogging deliciousness
arrive at your table. That's the influence of your olfactory sense
as they catches a whiff of your meal being prepared. You'll try to
stave off your hunger pangs by downing glass after glass of sweet tea or
red Kool-Aid, but they won't sate you like the meats and sides which
await you.
Big Mama's menu
features one, two, three or four meat combos with two sides and
bread. Unless you want to order a four piece combo AND a three
piece combo, you'll want to bring along a good friend so you can try
everything on the barbecue bounty: hot links, ribs, brisket, grilled
chicken, shredded pork, catfish and fried chicken. Remember, it's
got to be a good friend or you might not want to share all this
goodness.
The barbecue sauce is
imbued with a smoky sweetness that permeates the meats to the
bone. The ribs are thick and meaty, the type Fred Flintstone would
appreciate. The shredded pork is like fluffy manna while the hot
links are incendiary porcine perfection. Big Mama's fried chicken
is the best we've had at any restaurant in New Mexico, just a bit over-salted
like truly great fried chicken tends to be.
Southern sides include
potato salad, okra, baked beans, fries, corn on the cob, beans and rice
and greens. We were magically transported back to Mississippi with
each bite. The fried okra, in particular, danced on our taste
buds.
There are only three
dessert (misspelled on the menu as desert) options, but who needs any
others when those three--sweet potato pie, peach cobbler and banana
pudding--are tooth-decaying superstars of sweetness.
Big Mama's B-B-Que and
Soul Food may live on Central Avenue, but it's got its roots in the Deep
South.
