All posts in friends

Grilladelic is now global.  This is the first international post.  Introducing our China correspondent, Jeremiah Cornell, who is reporting on the state of American-style BBQ in China.  It’s a great read.  Enjoy.

The State of BBQ in China.

Regarding BBQ.  I think that American BBQ will have a huge market in China, but I think that will be 5-10 years from now. The Chinese’ taste buds are changing rapidly, and KFC has taken over recently. They are moving towards western style food, but the reason why KFC is beating up on McD’s is because the menu is catered to them.  Teriyaki and “New Orleans Flavor” (cajun) are king here.

Lower middle class Chinese people (everyday people) eat BBQ on a weekly basis, mostly men.  It is thought of as unhealthy, much like McDonalds in the US. The usual price is 1元, or 1 Chinese Yuan per kabob for lamb kabobs.  This is about $0.15USD.  Most men order 10 at a sitting, with women eating 5. Most Chinese recognize the word “BBQ”, and that is an accepted word, although it seems they usually pronounce it ba ba ku or something similar.  BBQ kabobs are called rou chuan, or 肉串 and are the most popular form. 串 is often on the sign outside of restaurants in the form of rope lights or christmas lights, and it looks like the kabob.  Rou is the word for meat in Chinese, and stick is chuan.  Lamb is yang rou chuan(羊肉串)，and beef is niu rou chuan (牛肉串). Niu rou being beef and yang rou being lamb.  I have yet to get beef here, as no matter what you order they give you the cheapest, lamb.  You sit at a tiny 18″ by 24″ table that is a mere foot off the ground, and the chairs are about 8 inches tall that you squat on.  Most restaurants are on the sidewalk in the night markets that pop up every evening, but I have been to proper restaurants that have full sized tables and chairs. BBQ eggplant, toasted french bread, chicken wings and a plate of boiled soybeans (edamme) are also common at these places.

Beer is almost mandatory, and with a 20oz of the local brew costing $0.75USD, is very palatable despite the formaldehyde taste. You can tell who the BBQ chefs are, they all look like they are crying.  This is due to the constant smoke in their eyes.  Its amazing what people here will go through for $7 a day.

The BBQ is cooked in a 4 to 8 foot long coal box. They season it constantly with cumin, oil and I believe parsley and cayenne.  They fan it by hand and it takes about 5-10 minutes to cook.  When eating the barbecue, most wipe the tip of the skewer with a napkin to get the charcoal residue off, then bite on the the meat and pull the skewer away.  I haven’t ate a lot of kabobs at home and this technique seems informal, but is perfectly okay here.

I had the opportunity to cook BBQ with some local Chinese students one weekend outside their living center.  Chickens and dogs ran wild, and both tried stealing food off the BBQ many times.  Garbage was everywhere.  It was quite the experience to taste such delicious food in such an unnatural atmosphere.

The better places I have had this style of BBQ are at Uighur restaurants.  Uighur is an autonomous region of China that is in the far west.  In my opinion it seems to have a lot of India and Pakistan area influences over Chinese.  There was a lot of violence in this area about a year ago due to the difference in ethnicities, but the people love the food.  Mutton fried rice with raisins was very good.