Barbeque traditions around the world

As the warm days came, we start spending more time outside, enjoying a long-awaited barbeque season. Who does not like to gather all family, or with friends for barbequing and grilling whatever's on their mind: from traditional meats and fish to the modern veggies and tofu? 

Nowadays barbeques, grilling & smoking of the foods are more about the art than the cooking, spread across borders and continents and turned into a global entertainment, which involves preparing different kinds of meats, fish, seafood, cheeses, vegetables and even bread, with a diverse range of marinades and spice rubs, originated from the different parts of the world.

Most of us know the story that the motherland of the BBQ culture is the USA. And that is indeed the case, at least in part. The tradition of meats and fish slow-cooking over a coal-lit fire comes to us from distant times past and has been firstly discovered by Christopher Columbus together with the numerous Carribean islands, Central America and northern South America at the end of the XV century. So, the US barbeque tradition takes influences from Spanish, European and Caribbean traditions, thus boasts a diverse range of cooking methods and ingredients.  

The US traditional BBQ includes, first and foremost, baking, grilling, in particular, charbroiling and braising on a charbroil- or gridiron-grill or smoking of the various meats, such as beef, pork and others. 

While in most of the countries of the world barbecue is usually an outside event, in Korea it is always made inside the house. During the process of grilling, people sit around a table waiting for the cooked food, and the grill is kept with hoods on the table.

In Malaysia & Indonesia, you could hardly find the food corner without Ikan Bakar - grilled fish and Ayam Bakar - grilled chicken, introduced to the local cuisine through the Indian and Middle East influence and richly flavoured with the herbs and spices. 

Europeans love to grill whatever you can imagine, starting from meats, fish and seafood to the cheeses, vegetables, bread and even desserts.

However, the most classical and advanced barbeque culture is in Germany. Special place equipped for barbeque can be found in every park. Women as well as men grill meat and excellent German frankfurters. They are absolutely equal in this.

Barbeque traditions may be different around the world. However, there is one thing which is common everywhere – barbeque is not only about food, but it’s always about spending time with our friends, relatives and beloved ones.