You Can Never Go Wrong with a BBQ
If you’re ever called upon to host some guests, whether you’ve put off getting things in order and left everything to the last minute or if the guests just dropped by unexpectedly, throw up a barbeque and all will be well.
This is not to say that every time someone who is hosting you throws a barbeque as the last resort though — barbeques just about sort every aspect of entertaining out, from enlisting all hands on deck and having each of your guests occupy themselves with something to even popping out to get some missing ingredients, drinks, etc. In fact, when a barbeque is actually the first choice in entertaining your guests and preparing food for all of you to enjoy, you can cook up a real storm with food that mostly cooks in a healthy way. I’m talking about a real barbeque here, where you start the fire from scratch and wait for it to set to a temperature that isn’t so hot that it’ll burn the outside of the food — not one of those electrical barbeques or even those gas ones which make the food taste like the gas, somewhat.
Barbeques are known by different names in some parts of the world, like the “braai” or “shisanyama” they refer to over in South Africa, although the gist of it is the same. You can really even go as far as cooking all your food on the barbeque, so much so that you can even prepare entire vegetarian menus over the fire.
You just have to know how to do it though, but improvisation goes a long way and usually yields surprisingly good outcomes.
For something like fish, you’d use foil to wrap the fish in and have it cook in its own little juices, perhaps with some fish spice, or you can sacrifice a little bit of the skin to really have it prepared in true barbeque style — basically you’d put the fish on a clean plank and pretty much just “barbeque the plank,” which will cook the fish all the way through, even though a good portion of it will be stuck to the plank.
In addition to the traditional meat varieties you’d do up on the barbeque, also try preparing some toasted tramezzini on the barbie, filling them with anything you want really, like chicken mayo or cheese and tomato. Bread toasted on a barbie has a unique “smoked” taste and just makes the whole meal that much more delicious.
Falafels can also be slightly toasted or “smoked” on the barbeque, this after having prepared all the fillers to go inside. You then add all the fresh ingredients like your salads afterwards and simply enjoy in a buffet-style from which all the guests can serve themselves.
Packing the barbie equipment always adds an extra dimension to a prolonged road-trip you might be taking as well, making for a good alternative to having to eat at restaurants along the way and working out cheaper too since you’d be buying fresh ingredients with which to “cook” from scratch.
