Written by Joy Gao
Photographed by Qiuyu Huang
The “formal” barbecue and grilling season is upon us.
We had been planning to have an outdoor barbecue when Qiuyu finishes his U20 tournament in Kitchener. Then, it gets even better,…when an old friend of mine came to visit us in Kitchener. My high school and university fellow student. We spent lots of time together back then. She had been there witnessing my happy old days. It feels really good when you can get-together with your old friend.
On July 30, 2015, she took 1.5 day off and drove 1 hour and a half to Kitchener and met us at Crowne Plaza Hotel where the North Youth Chess Championship U20 was held. We did a little bit chit-chat to catch up with so many years’ gap in between.
The barbecue afterwards was comfortable and pleasant.
Before we get to the fun part, let’s go through the technical parts, as this is always my favorite.
As far as I know, there are three basic ways to do barbecue: smoking, barbecuing and grilling. I bet you don’t know exactly the differences among them.
In short, when grilling, you quickly seal in the juices from the piece you are cooking. An outside crust is created that acts as a barrier and prevents meat juices from migrating outside. Grilling takes minutes and it needs high temperatures, 500° F (200° C), to burn the meat on the outside.
Smoking – on the other hand – is a slow process; it takes hours, sometimes even days. Throwing some wet wood chips over hot coals does not mean smoking. At best you can only add some flavor on the outside because the moment the surface of the meat becomes dry and cooked, a significant barrier exists that inhibits smoke penetration. A properly smoked piece of meat has to be thoroughly smoked, on the outside and everywhere else. Only prolonged cold smoking (almost no heat 52° – 140° F (12°-60° C))will achieve that result.
Barbecuing is a long, slow, indirect, low-heat method that uses charcoal or wood pieces to smoke-cook the meat. The best definition is that barbecuing is cooking with smoke. It is ideally suited for large pieces of meat like ribs, loins or entire pigs. The temperature range of 200° –300° F is still too high to smoke meats which is especially important when smoking sausages since the fat will melt away through the casings and the final product will taste like bread crumbs.
Now, what method are we going to use for today’s barbecue? You will get the idea when you see the machine that we are going to use.
There is a visual-stunning Gas Grill at the backyard of the hotel that we are staying. We are going to do a grilling.
The Cafeteria:
There’s nothing complicated about lighting a gas grill. However, gas grill operation does vary.
There are 3 basic rules that we have to follow when it comes to light a gas grill:
First, raise the lid of your gas grill. Second, turn on the gas at the propane tank. Next, turn on one of the gas burners on the grill. Then, press the auto light or ignition button if your grill has one.
That should do it. If it doesn’t light, and there are holes in the bottom of your unit, then you can stick a match near the burner from that position. If not, then use a long match from the top. If that is not available, throw a match in near the burners.
After the grill is lit, turn on the other burners. Allow the entire grill to burn for about 5 to 10 minutes on high. This will burn off any remaining food and grease accumulations on the diffusers below. Once the smoke subsides and it appears to be burning smoother and cleaner, then you can turn the burners back down to low and you’re ready for business.
The persons who prepared and cleaned the food:
We have the main chef:
The second chef, preparing his favorite:
Our onsite photographer: I ROCK!:
The food that we prepared are: chicken wings; chicken legs; shrimps; zukini; sausages; corns; etc. It turned out zukini is the most popular. Look at those zukinis and shrimps:
Do you know chives can be grilled too? That’s Simon’s favorite:
You get the idea that he likes it:
It is awesome to see Xiaohua with Qiuyu. My good friend with my family.
In order to relax our intense nerve, I was planning to have some wine during the barbecue. Unfortunately, we did not find any real wine at grocery stores. It turned out that in Ontario, you can only find beer, not wine on grocery store shelves. Even beer, was not allowed to be sold in grocery stores before April 2015. Where can we get wine in Ontario? LCBO: Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which operates 650 stores and 212 agency shops in rural areas. It will retain a monopoly on spirits. Simon did not know this and went to a grocery store to buy red wine like what we did in Quebec. Interestingly, he did find some wine, but it is “dealcoholized”. What is it exactly?
The producers make the wine using typical fermentation techniques, then employ a filtering process to remove virtually all the liquid, including the alcohol. This produces a kind of dealcoholized wine syrup. Then they add water back in and bottle it.
Why do people even drink it? I have no idea. It appears that dealcoholized wine might have some health benefits, but it’s difficult to know for sure because most studies are done with regular wine.
In the end, we threw that bottle of dealcoholized wine.
Overall, it was a very relaxing evening. I am looking forward to next year’s kitchener tournament.
References:
1. http://www.grillstuff.com/faq/how-do-i-light-a-gas-grill.html?section=faq&question_id=15
2.http://bbq.about.com/od/grillinghelp/tp/gas_grilling_tips.htm
3.http://www.weber.com/weber-nation/grill-skills/mastering-basics/gas-1/gas-grill-setup
4.http://nutrition.about.com/od/hydrationwater/f/Does-Dealcoholized-Wine-Have-Health-Benefits.htm