Pop Pop & Yum Yam Food Truck, Little Rock, Arkansas

Nancy and I started the morning with the hotel breakfast and drove to the Little Rock Visitors Center to start our 48th 10K state capital walk. There we found out that it would be a 12K walk. Nothing daunted, we strolled downtown through a lively district and over to the Clinton Presidential Library.

We’d visited it before on our way back from my distinguished visiting professor stint at Baylor Law (we never miss a chance to see a Presidential Library), part of a Billgrimage through Hope, McClard’s Bar-Q in Hot Springs, and to his Little Rock home and the Presidential Library.

Nancy and I continued on across the Arkansas River. Nancy had forgotten her hat, and bought an “Oklahoma” cap in the Oklahoma State Capitol shop. I was wearing my faithful Alabama hat and as we crossed the river, a guy said, “Alabama and Oklahoma! How did that happen?” I said I got her as the Jalen Hurts transfer. I won that deal.

We walked back across the River on another pedestrian bridge, to the Capitol building outside of which is a wonderful statue of the Arkansas Nine, the first children to integrate Central High School in Little Rock. Inside the Capitol itself are rows of portraits of distinguished former governors, along with one of this young kid.

The amazing thing is that I used to look younger than that back then. We were on the last laps of our walk in Little Rock when we saw a small farmers market at Main and Bates — just around the corner from the Designing Women house, for fans of that show. It had been a long time and a long walk since I’d had a measly breakfast of coffee and a few spoonfuls of oatmeal, a food I dearly love in cookie form but can do without otherwise. (The eggs on the hotel buffet were overcooked, and the meat was turkey sausage.)

So I was in a susceptible frame of mind when Nancy pointed out a trailer with the curious legend, Pop Pop & Yum Yam, made more curious because it was all in capital letters with no spaces — POPPOPYUMYAM.

I went over to investigate, since they appeared to be selling food. My curiosity took a back seat to a chalkboard that read, and I quote, “pork sandwich $10.” There were many more lines on the sign but I had the information I needed. I strode up to the counter and met PopPop, also known as Ralph, the one taking the orders, and YumYam, also known as Sonya, who’s cooking the sides and serving up the patters.

They’re very nice people, and I duly ordered a sandwich, thinking that a $10 sandwich would be on the small side and that Nancy and I would eat lunch after we finished the walk. Pop Pop and Yum Yum’s doesn’t have a vinegar-based sauce, so I asked for no sauce at all. Then I saw tiny cups of pickled jalapeño slices, and they graciously agreed to put some on my sandwich.

Here it is.

As you can see, that sandwich is not small. That’s a big helping of delightfully tender and juicy pork with a nice light thread of smoke. The jalapeños and their vinegar set the rich pork off nicely. I made what I thought would be a purely pro forma offer of a taste to Nancy. She took a forkful. And another and …

Sonya and Ralph mainly work job sites during the week and events on the weekend. They offer chicken, brisket, wings, nachos, and lots of sides, with the potato salad and the macaroni and cheese getting lots of love from people at the farmers market.

This was a very good sandwich, and Sonya and Ralph are good folks. Check out their Facebook page, linked above, to see where they’ll be, and let me know how the rest of the menu tastes.

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