The Outdoor Paradise For Your Food
Grilling is an American tradition that most Americans are not knowledgeable about when it comes to the very specific history of the tradition. If you were to ask most people, they would tell you that barbecue was invented in the American South, specifically in Texas. But that is not the case! Barbecue was actually invented in the Caribbean by Taino Indigenous People, based on their method of grilling (https://www.encyclopedia.com/sports-and-everyday-life/food-and-drink/food-and-cooking/grill) meat in an outdoor spit roast. These people used fire, smoke, leaves and sticks to create the delicious barbecue process we understand nowadays as one of the most delicious food groups in the world!
When we think about the transmission of African food cultures via African-American interpretations that eventually became American food, we have to remember to honor the people from our past who have put in the work to get us here today. This food came through West African food traditions combined with Caribbean culinary practices to form the first ever fusion food in the Americas: barbecue. This is why we cook every holiday: we are imbued with the traditions of both African and indigenous communities to build meals that are desirable, which occurred during the wretched experience of slavery in the United Sates.
When people were enslaved in the United States, many of them in the South worked in the fields and the home. In most other places in the colonies and later the country, enslaved African-Americans worked in the home and thus brought their culinary skills to the fore as they crafted and developed what would become the standard American diet, across several centuries. These people were adept in their use of the gas grill, and thus, when we think about modern barbecues today, we are thinking about a tradition that goes back for a very long time. Today, you can purchase a grill from many different retailers, like Watson’s gas grills, that are still working in that tradition that Africans brought to America.
The Gas Gets It Done
Think of the last time you went to a great barbecue. The grill was probably gas powered because as we all know, meat cooks evenly and beautifully when treated on a gas grill as the heat is something you can more easily control and temper as needed. It is critically important to be as safe as possible, and that is necessary as we continue to barbecue and grill at some of our favorite holidays in the United States of America. We love to grill over here: Memorial Day, Independence Day, Juneteenth, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and even Halloween can inspire Americans to heat up their barbecues and express themselves via the artistic medium of cooking over a gas powered fire.
Are you happy with the grilling experience you are currently having? Do not be distracted by the foolishness you see on the internet, especially because food styling is a really problematic way of introducing food groups to people. Instead, you should cultivate new relationships in order to be invited to cookouts in the African-American community where you might be able to commune with folks who have an organic, long-lasting relationship with the tradition of grilling meats, vegetables and fish to absolute perfection. This tradition undergirds the food cultures of America, as this community has blended its tastes and historical knowledge to create some of the greatest and best tasting original fusion food in the post modern world.
We Love Eating Meat
We barbecue every possible thing you can think of here in the United States. Americans are particularly talented at grilling pork in all its various forms, including but not limited to: pork butt, pork cheek, pig tail, pulled pork (meaning the pieces are marinated and then pulled apart to make a shredded meat), pork chops, bacon and many other types of pig meat. Chicken is also regularly cooked over a fire, often entirely whole or cut up into parts. Chicken wings are in fact so popular in this country that during the height of the global pandemic, America ran out of chicken wings entirely. Other parts of the chicken were so elevated in this moment that many popular chicken wing places temporarily became chicken thigh restaurants.
The consumption of beef in this country is staggering: we consume most of the world’s beef, with the consumption only waning in the last few years that more people are becoming vegan or vegetarian or pescatarian. That being said, this country’s methods for handling beef barbecue is world-class, as the beef dishes in America are internationally renowned. They are even more beloved when they have been cooked over a natural fire, which you can learn more about online. People tend to be very comfortable with hamburgers at their outdoor gatherings and in fact, they have come to expect them, so when preparing for a barbecuing experience in this country you are going to have to be ready for people to ask you where they can find some beef!
