Rolling Smoke: Dining on 4 Wheels
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Sometimes performing the most mundane of tasks can lead to good food. It pays to keep a watchful eye and open mind; a willingness to stumble upon unexpected things to eat with little forethought. It isn’t alway pretty, but one often ends up eating well. Take for example a recent trip to the DMV to get a new license. It is a given that no one likes to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Even the people who work at the DMV don’t like to go to the DMV. But a new COVID requirement of pre-scheduling all DMV appointments has an unexpected advantage over the old standing-in-line misery: it enables one to plan the task around -- what else -- food. So, true to a Foodwalkers golden rule (i.e., plan everything around eating), it was no accident that our time slot just happened to be set for midday -- just in time for a post-licensing lunch. That way, in addition to becoming legal behind the wheel, we could search for unknown eats in an unfamiliar place. We didn’t know where we were going, but we’d know it when we got there.
My 4 Sons BBQ in Midland, WA is a run-of-the-mill joint on a lonely corner in a nondescript Tacoma suburb. The only sign is hand-painted on the window and it’s easy to drive past it without notice. But once outside of your car you realize from the smoky aroma in the air that maybe it’s not the plain-Jane joint it appears to be. You could misjudge it -- if you’ve lost all sense of smell and curiosity -- because inside My 4 Sons it’s almost as bland as its exterior. Especially during these pandemic days, with the tables stacked up in the back and nothing more than a counter showing any sign of life. But give it a moment and you’ll discover that behind that counter and back beyond the tables are ovens, smokers and a pig-pile of hickory BBQ which you'll not soon forget.
Owner Matt Henning and his team make everything themselves from scratch at this unassuming eatery. Matt’s four carnivorous sons -- the namesake of this place -- are both his inspiration and his quality-controllers for the food he makes. His guiding principle is simple: if the boys don't like it, he won’t serve it. From the pulled pork, brisket, shredded chicken, smoked turkey and “dinosaur-sized” beef ribs, everything is hand cut, wood smoked and prepared right there on the premises. No short-cuts here and never a drop of liquid smoke. Matt’s real-deal approach to his menu goes beyond just the high-quality mains because the guy’s a fanatic. He also makes his own pickles, slaw, and baked beans -- and even hickory-smokes his scratch-made mac & cheese before serving it. The meats he cooks are so good, so fresh, so carefully thought out that he often runs out before the store hours even end. Kid-tested and customer-approved.
Fortunately for us, they had not yet run out when we got there. So we loaded up on the basics to really test it out: pulled pork, smoked brisket, St. Louis pork spare ribs and his Wednesday special of smoked fried chicken wings. It was raining outside so we did what any self-respecting lover of fresh-from-the-smoker BBQ does -- we ate it in the car. Under the influence of earthy aroma, an abject loss of willpower prevented us from saving it for later. Sure, we could have stuck it in the back seat and driven the hour back home where plates, knives and forks awaited, but why take such risks? I mean, who knows what could happen during the drive to prevent us from eating it at its peak -- traffic, a flat tire, a catastrophic spillage from the takeout container! Plus after smelling that meaty woodsmoke we were suddenly famished and, anyway, it’s sort of my job to eat it because, y’know, Foodwalkers…. So we sheltered-in-place inside our car and tucked right in.
There is something about sitting in your car eating great food that helps it taste fantastic. And My 4 Sons did not disprove this theory. We just pushed the seats back to make room on our laps and began to dine as if sitting at our favorite BBQ joint, which this place was promising to become. The brisket was warm and tender, with a just-right border of glistening fat melding into the moist, pink meat. We balanced it on our knees while cutting it with a plastic knife. It flaked off at the lightest touch of the blade, not even scratching into the cardboard food container beneath. A dash of Matt’s tangy sauce and we were in smoked meat heaven. The pulled pork stretched in strands, connected by crispy charred crusts of burnt-ends. We ate it neat with a plastic fork, opting against a sandwich -- no room in the front set for that forward-leaning drip avoidance technique required in most sandwich/gyro/taco eating activities. The wings, balancing tenuously on the center console between the armrest and the gear shifter, were moist, crispy and perfectly blush inside from hickory penetration. And the spare ribs offered just enough toothsomeness to cling to the bone until tapped by teeth on their smoky surface, when the moist meat would slip off in juicy strips of porcine goodness. Each bite was followed by an obligatory wiping of the fingers with paper napkins to avoid leaving greasy prints on the steering wheel.
Some day our cars will again revert to the highway-hugging Wendy-Mc-Kingsters junk burger eating shelters they once were. But until then cars can serve as a venue for a great culinary experience. Because the act of eating good food in the car requires extra care and thought. You find yourself chewing a little slower and tentatively, savoring the tastes and avoiding the mess. This deliberate dining leads to a deeper appreciation of the food in front of the dashboard. Like I had while eating My 4 Sons BBQ in the comfort of my own, well-worn seat. The air temperature was exactly where I wanted it; the sound system adjusted just right. And in that moment the car seemed like the perfect place for such excellent food. And it smelled like BBQ paradise for the rest of the day.
My 4 Sons BBQ
9823 Portland Ave East, Midland, WA
