BBQ Days
30 May 2006 01:38 americana, bon appetit!Another Memorial Day has come and gone in the United States and though it is officially a day to remember those who fought in various wars, it is also unofficially the first day of summer. Countless Americans spend the long weekend traveling from one destination to another and, more often than not, attend at least one barbeque.
Barbeque is one of those words in American English that has a variety of meanings. It can refer to the specific style in which meat is prepared and the type of sauce that covers it, it can be a social gathering at which barbequed food is served, or it can indicate the act of cooking meat over hot coals or a revolving spit.
For example, in Texas barbequing refers to what others call “hot smoking:” Sliced brisket, sausage, and pork ribs are cooked with both smoke and low heat for hours over woods such as oak, mesquite, or pecan. And in Mississippi, most barbecue is pork shoulder and is slow-cooked in a smoker (either a drum, or a converted shed), though special events call for open-pit barbecue. *
Barbeque in Iowa tends to resemble the Missouri and/or Kansas City styles of barbeque, but can also simply mean a social gathering where actual barbequed meat may or may not be served and is probably more accurately called “grilling” instead of “barbequing.”
Iowa barbeques revolve around beef and when a bacon-wrapped filet is seared for a few minutes on the grill and served a perfect medium rare, it would almost be considered sacrilege to add any type of sauce… BBQ or otherwise.
Now as we all know, I love good steak and memories of Memorial Day Barbeques past sure had me drooling for a thick filet this past weekend. However, as we also know, beef in Germany has a long way to go before it can even come close to measuring up to my high Midwestern standards.
And then as I was pining away for a thick cut of Iowa beef yesterday, I abruptly remembered a suggestion that my step-dad had when I was back in the U.S. a few months ago: Perhaps I could order some quality Midwestern beef from Omaha Steaks. If so, even in Germany I would never have a beef emergency again.
I got all wound up and started browsing their website before I realized even if they did ship all the way to Germany it wouldn’t do me much good anyway… because I can’t properly grill a steak to save my life!
