Uhm, isn’t that the way you light a BBQ in most countries?
Imho lighter fluid makes it going much quicker than the tar crap they sell here and I dunno what the charcoal is made from here, but it’s not like the stuff I’m used to.
Also, them hard round things commonly used here must contain far more chemicals than briquette’s. Doesn’t seem to be anything all that bad in briquette’s either for that matter en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briquette
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Costco does carry Kingsford charcoal briquets.
I know, I know, it’s artificial, full of chemicals, blah, blah, blah. But it’s what I grew up on as a red-blooded american. So, I picked up a pack (actually 6 small 4.5 pound packs shrinkwrapped together).
They didn’t have any lighter fluid – the other half of the equation. I know, I know, I can, and will have to use a few of the little Taiwan charcoal lighter thingies instead, but there’s nothing like drenching a stack of briquets with lighter fluid, throwing a match on from a safe distance and watching the flames leap for the sky. Hoooaaaaahhh!
Anyway, looking forward to trying a good ole American bbq one of these days. :discodance:[/quote]
What about those little Hershey’s Kisses lighter things?
Too bad they don’t sell Buffalo meat at Costco anymore. :lick:
Carrefour has ostrich…
Mother Theresa,
I am most impressed at your interest in the true art of barbecuing. Being from SA, where “braaing” on weekends is an art form, the minute grids used at Moon Festival here entertain me no end (what can you grill on that? 2 or 3 shrimp?).
Enjoy.
I use those little wax starter things, a butane torch, and a fan. Works well. Good looking ribs, those. Did you par-boil them first?
One of my favorite BBQ offerings is chicken legs boiled up in soy, sugar, water, vinegar, salt and pepper first. It’s already cooked and the BBQ just adds magic.
[quote=“freethinker”]Mother Theresa,
I am most impressed at your interest in the true art of barbecuing. Being from SA, where “braaing” on weekends is an art form, the minute grids used at Moon Festival here entertain me no end (what can you grill on that? 2 or 3 shrimp?).
Enjoy.[/quote]
I’m gonna make me a 44 gal drum braai! Can’t possibly fit my T-bones and boerie on those tiny grills they have here! On the meantime I’ll just make do with my Carrefour braai.
El Toro, where do you get the T-Bones? Although the ban’s apparently been listed, my wife asked at Costco and apparently they have no plans of carrying them in the foreseeable future.
On another note, my wife was raising crazy Taiwan superstitions the other night, afraid she would get cancer from the blackened edge of our barbecued dinner. Yes, her fear is totally unjustified, but I was slightly surprised to learn just now there’s some basis for it. . . not that it’ll alter my habits at all.
[quote]A study by the French environmental campaigning group Robin des Bois found that a typical two-hour barbecue can release the same level of dioxins as up to 220,000 cigarettes.
Dioxins are a group of chemicals known to increase the likelihood of cancer.
The figures were based on grilling four large steaks, four turkey cuts and eight large sausages.
This amount of cooking was found to release 12-22 nannograms of dioxins into the atmosphere.
The researchers also found that the average concentrations of dioxins in the vicinity of the barbecue ranged from 0.6 to 0.7 nannograms per cubic metre - up to seven times higher than the level authorised for public incinerators at the point of discharge from the chimney.
Food
The French food safety agency is also undertaking research into the possible cancer-causing effect of carbonising food during the barbecuing process.
They have found that some hydrocarbons which have been linked to cancer are incorporated into the food.
Desmond Hammerton, a retired professor of Marine Biology, is campaigning to raise awareness of the problem.
He called for warnings to be included on barbecue equipment.
He said: "I’m sure that just the odd barbecue during the summer is not going to have any effect.
“But if you have a barbecue once or twice a week through the summer, and all crowd round it and inhale the fumes then over 10 or 20 years maybe that would do something.” [/quote]
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3106039.stm
I wouldn’t worry about it too much, but from what I’ve read, it helps if you marinate, keep the heat lower or increase the coals-to-grill distance and cook it more slowly, trim off excess fat to avoid flare-ups from dripping fat that burn the meat, flip it often, don’t overcook it (try not to blacken stuff), cut off and discard any black bits, don’t eat too much, don’t always make it red meat (include veggies, chicken, fish, etc.), and don’t do it every week. Oh, and eat your broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale and brussels sprouts. You can still certainly have great barbecues within those guidelines.
E.g.,
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co … 00459.html
msnbc.msn.com/id/8499202/
Use the right spices and it seems like you don’t have to worry about it herbsspices.suite101.com/article … ooked_meat
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Thanks.
The problem with Taiwan’s charcoal is it’s really hard to light, because it’s real charcoal, just chunks of burned wood, unlike the briquettes one buys back in the States in giant bags, which are much easier to light after you’ve soaked them really good with lighter fluid. If someone knows where to buy these kind of products in Taiwan, please let me know.
I didn’t use brine (I assume that’s a salty mixture), but I did marinate those a few hours first in honey, garlic, lemon juice, cider vinegar, olive oil, etc., a recipe I found somewhere that not only flavors the meat but also tenderizes it. Then when they were about halfway done cooking I started slathering them with a homemade barbecue sauce made from ketchup, brown sugar, worcester sauce, etc.
The above are Taiwan pork ribs that I bought at Costco, because they looked ok and had bones. Costco also sells very nice US boneless beef ribs (boneless ribs, I know, an oxymoron), which I’ve bought many times and really like. They’re excellent. But I’d really like a nice slab of bone-in beef ribs. Aside from decent charcoal, that’s another thing on my shopping list, but I believe they won’t be from the US, due to Taiwan’s political games.[/quote]
Wellman’s in Tienmu used to sell that, maybe they still do?
Okay, time for me to chime in and…
-
My
I do a quick and dirty marinade of lemon juice, white vinegar, basil and store bought Italian salad dressing (but just a small bottle) and LOTS of pepper. (What’s the rule on overnight marinating btw? I always did it right when I was going to bed and taking it out first thing in the morning, bbq at night.) -
And where do you have your BBQs usually? Here in Kobe, its a pain in the butt to find a patch to grill b/c its illegal. And I love me some illegal BBQs. So do you do it under a bridge in the city or rooftop or…?
[quote=“MilkTeaJack”]
2. And where do you have your BBQs usually? Here in Kobe, its a pain in the butt to find a patch to grill b/c its illegal. And I love me some illegal BBQs. So do you do it under a bridge in the city or rooftop or…? [/quote]
That’s my question. I’ve seen public BBQ “pits” in campgrounds in Nantou, Yilan, etc., but do they have BBQ pits that are available to the public in or around Taipei? I don’t have access to a rooftop or BBQ-friendly balcony, and I assume I might get in trouble if I start flippin’ burgers in da-an park…
Regarding the charcoal / briquette and lighting issues: At Carrefour they sell some kind of roughly hand-sized, maybe 7cm thick coal bricks with several holes drilled (?) in them, 2 of which cost ~NT$70. I guess their size is so that 2 of them will be enough for one of them single-use barbecues that are so popular here…
Anyway, these thingies are very easy to light with a lighter (even they don’t smell like petrochemicals at all), and will burn by themselves very easily. I guess it has something to do with the holes in them and the chimney effect - or maybe some vile TWese mixture of chemicals 
After ~5 minutes they seem to be ready to start barbecuing, and they lasted for over 1.5 hours before we extinguished them.
I want to find out more about what they are, but according to my TWese friends they used to use chemicals earlier, but nowadays they are supposed to be safe. If they really are, and just rely on physics (particle size and chimney effect?) then this would be pretty revolutionary for the casual BBQer. Not for traditional braai masters though, and also the Grillsportverein back home wouldn’t admit users of this :no-no:
So far the most convenient (albeit smelly) variant I found was in Canada, where they had coal briquettes impregnated with lighting fluid. Just take out of the (sealed) bag, flip a match into the heap, and 10-15min later you can start with the meat.
Back home we usually use normal coal or briquettes with lighter fluid, with the recent introduction of some kind of chimney thingies instead of the lighting fluid. I guess this summer I will do some more research into what options are good for use in Taiwan 
Happy BBQing and Frohes Grillen, everyone!
And how is that having a braai (the correct term for “bbq” anyway?)?
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