BBQ Season

We went to a BBQ today. Jeni who works with me at the Ministry of Health sent me an invite on Friday via text messaging (kiwi's use this service on their cell phones almost exclusively.) inviting me to her place in Upper Hutt for an afternoon of feasting with friends.

I have been to a couple of BBQ's already and this was not much different than the others. It does differ from the standard US affair in a two suttle ways. It seems like everyone brings meat, and we are not talking the hot dog kind, in this case we had: Venison Steaks, Pork chops, Lamb chops, Home smoked ham/bacon, Venison Sausages, Tandoori Chicken (our contribution,) and Abalone Fritters (okay not really meat but man were they good!) The second way it differs from a typical US BBQ is the amount of meat we had. Oh my I have never eaten so much meat in my life. This was good stuff.

The Venison Steaks were cut off a huge roast which the host had contributed to the fun. The host also prepared the Abalone Fritters. Basically a crab cake made with Abalone instead. Abalone is called Paua here and is a quite a strong taste which is cut very well by the rest of the fritter.

There were the standards salads, potato, coleslaw, lettuce, and a few others. I used them as dips for the potato crisps (chips) but basically stuck with the meat. Instead of buns the kiwi's put out bread. Just plain white or wheat bread which is buttered. So you grab a piece of meat and throw it on the bread. I personally think the bread is only used to keep your fingers from getting burnt. I adopted the very sensible practice of grabbing the meat with a paper serviette (napkin) instead of the bread so I could eat more meat. I mean given a choice between another piece of fresh venison (did I mention that he shot the animal just last month?) hot off the grill or a piece of bread what would you choose?

There was only one other person from the office, someone I have not spoken with often so it was a great opportunity to catch up. And it turns out that Jeni and I have a mutual friend so it was great to see Pat show up shortly after I did. Wellington is a small world. I have made a few friends and they start popping up in unexpected places, this was typical.

We left when Dennis started to loose it about four hours after we arrived. Quite satiated and looking forward to the next BBQ on the following Sunday. Then before I could even get into the house our neighbors just up the hill from us invited us over to a BBQ on Saturday. We were warned this is the Kiwi way, BBQ's all summer long.

As my father always use to say "When is Rome do as the Romans." I will suffer through this for the honor of my country!