Lifespan of a Chennette

Whether you like to spell it Barbecue, Barbeque, BBQ, Bar-B-Q or Bar-B-Que, this is apparently the time for dealing with fire and coals and grills. For our more northern neighbours in the hemisphere, it’s because of that season called summer. For us in the tropics, where we don’t get too much variation in our temperatures, it’s probably because of general vacation mode in the corresponding months. As we get into the hurricane season down here, we can’t always rely on dry weather, even where we have warmth!

Barbecue means different things to different people though – is the method of cooking, the equipment, the meat itself, the sauce or a particular meal combination? What makes a bbq? Growing up in T&T, we would barbecue on Old Years (what better way to pass the time in the one night you were allowed to stay up late?) together with neighbours. Which meant chicken, of course, with the lovely thick and charred layer of yummy, spicy and sweet, ketchupy bbq sauce. One of our neighbours would always wrap a big whole fish of some kind in foil and throw that on the grill too, all seasoned up and piled with onions and tomatoes etc. I remember an uncle trying to get me to expand my horizons beyond chicken with a piece of beef sliced off a big slab he’d grilled to a nice brown outside. Although I was not partial to it at the time (BEEF? no sauce??), I can still remember the flavours of smoky beef (NOT smoked beef which is a different entity entirely), which my more mature palate now can appreciate.  And oh, that’s just the proteins. No bbq in Trinidad can really be complete without the potato salad. All the better to soak up extra sauce. And a fry rice on the side. One year, we (Mom) contributed a lovely creamy cheesy green fig pie.

As we got a little older, we moved onto kebabs – lamb, chicken, veggie…skewered and then tossed in a olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs (Mom always has mint and thyme etc around). For a few years we did the Old Years’ barbecue at an uncle’s house, where we prepped whatever we wanted while he manned the grill. Fresh pineapple grilled, with sweet caramelisation on the outside and juiciness on the inside, together with lamb is just lovely. Once, when Dad wasn’t home to lug out the bbq, Mom got out the old small coal pot and we did lamb kebabs. We probably still did potato salad, or macaroni pie for the sides though.

So, when I was briefly in Toronto some years ago as a student, and was told to come along to the barbecue for the Faculty’s student orientation bbq, I was a bit taken aback by what that turned out to be – hot dogs…with veggie burgers (for people like me) – they fired up a grill for HOT DOGS. Was that all the Canadians meant by bbq? Did this extend to all of North America? Of course, I realised that couldn’t be it. I’d seen ads with people throwing steaks on the bbq. But it did make me wonder, what really do people mean when they say bbq? The Wikipedia entry doesn’t really make matters any clearer, other than identifying different usages and meaning in various parts of the world -

“[Barbecue] is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, with the heat and hot gases of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of charcoal or a propane gas grill, and may include application of a marinade, spice rub, or basting sauce to the meat. The term as a noun can refer to the cooking apparatus itself, or to a party that includes such food. The term as an adjective can refer to foods cooked by this method. The term is also used as a verb for the act of cooking food in this manner.”

People can name things whatever they want If you read this blog you know, that is fine by me. Barbecue, at least the word, can be traced right back to the Caribbean, however (see Wikipedia) -

“Most etymologists believe that barbecue derives ultimately from the word barbacoa found in the language of the Taíno people of the Caribbean. The word translates as “sacred fire pit.”[2] The word describes a grill for cooking meat, consisting of a wooden platform resting on sticks.”

But let’s move away from things that I am unclear about to things I know. Which, as always, focus on my personal experiences, and people are welcome to contribute their own (different) knowledge! Barbecue for me is about cooking over fire, yes, but to be “Trini” barbecue, the sauce is as important. And I don’t mean that (hickory) smoked American style bbq sauce – I really don’t like that flavour so much so that I hate bbq-flavoured chips (if only they’d invent a shadow benny bbq-flavoured chip). The sauce is important, because while the meat is cooking, you have to keep basting with the sauce, so that by the time the meat is cooked through, it has developed this thick, crusty exterior built from charring and sauce, while the meat is kept moist; with every bite ensuring that you taste the flavours of the sauce. (Of course this can be achieved by that other Trini favourite, of drowning food in sauce but it’s not quite the same thing…)

The Trini bbq sauce is ketchup based, and while everyone puts their own spin on it, it is essentially meant to be a little on the sweet side, infused with our regular green seasonings and some heat. I like when there’s a touch of tamarind in it – to bring a tang and complexity of flavour that is balanced out by the sweetness and the must-have shadow beni/bandhania. I know some people who add some citrus to the mix. While if you’re in a rush, you can just mix the ketchup together with your other stuff, the best sauce is made from slow-cooking all the ingredients together (watch out for ketchup splatter, and add some extra liquid).

The most common barbecued meat is chicken…well, that’s just the most common meat in T&T isn’t it? And there are different schools of thought on achieving the best balance of cooked-but-not-dry meat and crusty exterior. Most people favour pre or par-cooking the chicken, particularly when cooking for a large group, or in a rush. Because getting a quarter of a chicken to cook properly all the way through, takes some time…it’s not like a flat, relatively thin lamb chop, or a steak which can take some rareness. So many people will steam the seasoned chicken till almost fully cooked (sometimes even with some sauce), or microwave it, and then start the basting and grilling process. This is fine for a crowd, when you only have a single relatively small bbq, but I like the flavour of the chicken when you’ve cooked it long and slow, basting all the time, and then charring. The photo on the left was from a couple months ago, when I visited home, and since it was just 4 of us, Lilandra and I convinced Mom to put the chicken raw on the grill. And yes it took long, but without exposing it to too much high heat while it cooked, it worked!

The foil packets around the chicken (and the lamb in the first photo) contain potatoes and carrots, tossed in olive oil, garlic and green stuff, and just left on the edges of the bbq, turning occasionally, while we cooked the meat. The result? Tender on the inside, crispy-skinned potatoes with nice flavour, and really nice carrots that made us wish we had tossed in some honey with the olive oil.

Of course, Trini don’t necessarily barbecue EVERYTHING with sauce…chicken, lamb, beef, steak-fish…sure..shrimp too I am certain…but we’re a people interested in food generally. So I am sure there are nuff people out there who bbq hot dogs and burgers too. And kebabs with olive oil dressing. And veggies straight on the grill. I mean, what else is that roadside favourite roast corn?

One thing you do have to keep in mind about the Trini BBQ culture…if someone comes up to you and says “ey, we having a barbecue next weekend…”, get your wallet ready. Chances are the next words will be “I have some tickets here to sell. Is for the child school/mosque/church/mandir/sick person”.

Yes. In T&T the BBQ has become almost synonymous with a fundraiser.* It’s the method of choice for all – sell some tickets, buy some boxes,** fire up some coals, fry the rice and boil the potato for the salad…and fix-up. It’s a time-proven technique for which everyone knows the routine and can lend a hand. In fact the Q has become so common, that it has given rise to variations in the true spirit of the country. Chinese-Q - keep the fry rice, but use chinese-style chicken*** and chow mein. Curry-Q – roti (mostly paratha/buss-up shut), with curried chicken, channa and aloo and maybe pumpkin or curry mango. Veggie-Q - this can be any of the Qs without the meat, and some additional veggie preparation. I think we’re still missing out on some demographic, however, and I look forward to the Syrian/Lebanese-Q (or maybe Mediterranean-Q or Arabian-Q). I’ve gotten pelau in boxes before, but not sure why or where…was that a Creole-Q?

Now, if someone comes up to you and says, “we going to bbq tonight” as opposed to “having a bbq”, you might be safe to just walk with your belly and enjoy the goodness.

————————–
* I have seen a similar BBQ for fundraising in Guyana, but I am not sure how pervasive it is or if there are other variations here.
** Who here has never folded boxes??
*** In the words of Alton Brown, that’s another show…