Southern Soul Barbeque, St. Simons Island, Georgia

Unfortunately, I did not get to sample much on this brilliant menu...We pulled in to Southern Soul in-between meals for a "snack" of a shared pulled pork sandwich and a side of fried green beans. Yes my friends, fried green beans. There is some kind of mad genius loose in this kitchen. We grabbed samples of the five different bbq sauces, ranging from a thin, yellow, mustardy vinegar-based one to a thick, sweet deep reddish-brown tomato-based one (all were wonderful) and, in the parking lot (no seats at the BBQ), dug in to our sandwich, piled high with perfectly tender smoky pork, and those unbelievable green beans. Holy crap. They were coated with a crispy, cornmeal crust and, I can't believe I'm saying this, but BETTER than french fries (ok, better than 99% of french fries). The bean is somehow still a little crunchy after its time in the fryer, a perfect complement to the texture of the cornmeal coating. Wow. And to top it all off, we washed it down with a Nehi peach soda - very exciting, and as tacky, artificial and supersweet as you might imagine. Nehi peach was my after-school-snack drink of choice, since it went so well with my Slim Jim - both of which I procured almost daily for a number of years at the Suwannee Swifty convenience store in Camilla, Georgia. I haven't seen one of these in forever, and I hear they're hard to find now. Good thing family visits will bring us to St. Simons for many years to come. (www.southernsoulbbq.com)