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What is it with barbecues?

April has favoured us with some prematurely fine weather so we had our inaugural barbecue of the year this evening.

For any normal meal we would generally decide on a meat component and build on that.  Perhaps we would enjoy a beef dish or a chicken dish or a fish dish.  Once the idea of barbecuing is mentioned however  all concept of dietary reasonableness goes out the window: "Steak is good on a barbecue so lets have some of that and some chicken and some sausages and some barbecued salmon  while we are at it.  Don't forget the chicken wings and we need  peppers and mushrooms and onions and potatoes and plenty of crusty white bread while we are at it."

Choosing to serve a green salad on the side does not compensate. 
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Comments

JThelen said…
It's worth noting that barbecue is a food preparation, not a cooking aparatus. Grills are the cooking aparatus.

With that said, I love grilling meats of all types, but true barbecue is a wonderful thing. True barbecue is cooked with smoke and spice, at lower heats, until the meat is flavorful and juicy and falling apart at a touch. And for that, a green salad fails pretty hard, because you'll want potato salad and coleslaw and all sorts of awesome deserts to go along with your multiple pounds or kilos of delicious smoked meats.
2:29 am
mbp said…
Ah JT you have my mouth watering now. I wonder if it will be sunny enough today to light the barbie once more?

As to the definition of the word, I suspect it is a master of usage. In my part of the world at any rate a grilling apparatus for outdoor use is universally known as a barbecue. The word is also used to refer to the cooking process and indeed to refer to the event itself. The key feature though is that it must be outdoors. The exact same cooking process performed indoors would be known as grilling.
8:34 am
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