Thursday, September 01, 2005

We Gonna Walk Down To... Electric Barbecue

A few nights ago, we sauntered over to the park across the street where there are these coin operated BBQs for the public to use. A novel concept, it provides permanent cooking facilities at a minimal cost, something like 20 cents for 15 minutes of heat. It is more like a 'griddle' than a BBQ, but it does get hot enough to fully cook one's food. There are several of these brick structures scattered in the park, each the size of a car, containing four cooking surfaces. We prepared some sausages and onions with olive oil and garlic in a ziploc and toted it down the street for some easy outdoor cooking as the sun sets.

The grills themselves are sometimes grimy with the previous person's mess, but next time we'll bring aluminum (the accent is placed on the 'min' here, not the 'lum' as in the states) foil and just cover it up. We did see others just throw their mixed fare right on the surface with no worries, but instead we chose to try to clean ours off a bit, with mixed results. When we travel soon, this type of facilities located at campsites should make a pretty good mobile kitchen. Bacon and Eggs for a big brekke, grilled bangers later in the arvo (afternoon)... mmmmm, tasty. We picked up an old esky (ice chest) at the Salvos this weekend to be able to tote our perishable supplies with us in the Holden.

Speaking of meat (and I'm always speaking of meat), we witnessed our first 'meat raffle' this weekend at the local R.S.L. (Arrie, or Rossie) - the Returned Serviceman's League. There was some Snooker tournament that had occurred earlier that day and it was time to dole out the prizes. These meat platters had been sitting out for the greater part of the evening, waiting to be selected by the lucky members. Apparently the 'Brekke Platter' containing ham and eggs is for wussies, because the guy who selected it got a good ribbing from his mates in doing so. The R.S.L. is as authentic as it gets, nowhere else will you find such true Australian character (or characters). Coherence of speech goes completely out the door after about 9pm.

posted by ncawthon at 10:14 AM