Thursday, June 16, 2011

A Family BBQ - Eat Till You Burst, and Then Eat Some More.

3rd August, 2010 - Now Australian's like to believe we perfected (if not invented) the barbecue, however, the reality is that bbq is one of the universal (almost) joys of living. No matter where you live, almost. Ok... that might be being a little culturally insensitive (especially to vegetarians), but I am a BIG FAN of the barbecue. The Japanese are no different - although their concept of barbecue can be a little different. One differences is that the barbecues tend to be portable - and known in the west as a hibachi, though these are not strictly speaking hibachi (which are small heating pots). Back at home in Oz, we have a tendency to go industrial size - becoming an integral part of your house. As the weather was a bit hot outside, we actually cooked - and ate - in the comfort of the garage... well, cooked, ate, drank, talked and laughed that is.

It's not just the bbq itself that's different  - but the ingredients are quite different as well... although, I'm sure that each family has their own "flavours". Today we had a quick bbq with pork sausages, chicken meatball (tsukune), bbq'd mutton (jingisukan),  vegetables including bean sprouts (mame moyashi) and eggplant (nasu)...

And corn on the cob as well as small cow intestine (called, strangely, hormone  in Japanese) which is the rather wet looking white ingredient in the front of the photo below. I'm not a big fan of hormone, but it's ok I guess.

And not forgetting something a little more exotic....squid (ika)... yummy.

And L-kun is showing off the rice balls (onigiri) for lunch... at 3 yo he was still in his, I'm not sure I want to be adventurous mood when it came to food. Simple things were often what was needed, but overall he used to eat plenty of veg and fruit as well as meat.


And the good thing is that if you want a little more of something, you just whack it on the bbq. I love communal cooking! And after a long afternoon of eating, drinking and an occasional game of soccer...the bbq charcoals were finally put out. There's something quite magical about watching the charcoals cool down. Our modern gas-fired bbq's don't quite have the same appeal... though I'm not sure about the goodness of it in this environment of carbon credits...

And then it's time for dessert... provided by T-chan's best friend, T2-chan.... and what a lovely assortment of delectables there were...

Let me just lick my lips a bit...

Yumm-o... I miss these cheeky little Japanese individualised desserts.

And they even had a mini-mini-pavlova!

Of course, sometimes a lad's got hide the fact that he really likes something (that way he might be able to score some more, if we think he's eating it under sufferance)... L-kun was playing up for the cameras. His face said  I don't like it, but his belly said more please. Cheeky monkey... ok... if you want to be like that, Daddy will eat them all!

It was a lovely family bbq - and we all ended the day feeling full in stomach, and full in heart.

Gochisousamadeshita!

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