A Tradition Of Cooking Out Of Doors Happens In Many Cultures, And Though The Argument Over Who Thought Of It Is Fun To Listen To, It Is Rather Silly

I have been very fortunate in my time that I have had an extremely cosmopolitan working life, having had colleagues from all over the world. I can declaim with some gravity that I have never met an Australian I didn’t like, and having lived in a country that’s full of them when I was in Canberra, it’s no mean feat not to have found one objectionable example. Of course, Canberra is not like the rest of Australia as it is a false environment built for government requirements, but still.

From 2000 onwards, I found myself increasingly in the presence of South Africans, lots of whom were exiting the homeland as circumstances deteriorated both economically and socially. Plenty had played their trump card of British passport qualification via immigrant grandparents or other reasons of ancestry. But also plenty were Afrikaners and black Africans who don’t have that easy way to leave but still decided to take their abilities for greater rewards elsewhere.

To a man and woman I have found them, contrary to the famous “Spitting Image” song, amiable, good humoured and great fun to be with. Also to a man and woman, they remain convinced that it was South Africans that invented the idea of cooking outdoors. The braaivleis (Afrikaans meaning roasted meat) is a cultural tradition on a par with rugby and diamonds.

In the old days, people would head out into the veld, hunt down antelope such as springbok, eland or Wildebeest for the larger party. They’d shoot it, skin and butcher it, dig a pit and build a fire and roast the animal carcass, usually whole. They cannot do that very easily anymore as the aminal life is rather better protected and hunting is strictly licensed, but the tradition of the braai remains as a vital social event which no summer party of any size is complete without.

Australians are also convinced that they invented the idea through the barbeque. Although the hunting element is normally missing, and made difficulty by not being as varied as in the South African tradition. Kangaroos are very tasty but extremely hard and time consuming to get the meat right (it has to hang for at least 2 weeks which somewhat loses the element of spontaneity) and most other possibilities are too small (wallabies), cute (koalas, wombats), inedible (dingoes, platypus) or too lethal (practically all other wildlife on the continent) to contemplate, the Australians take enormous pride in the outdoor tradition.

Here, we don’t have wildlife capture and consumption but we can still make the most of the barbeque, and in recent years the equipment available has got better out of all proportion. For example we have makers such as Weber bbq who produce Weber gas grills which help get rid of the randomness of building an old fashioned fire and introduce reliability and the capacity to use the equipment in all weathers should the need arise.

Some of the Weber gas grills now come with total portability which means that you can transport them with you on a trip out to the beach or picnic which further gets rid of the irritation of burnt coals being left behind on the site which is a usual hazard of the disposable barbecue or lightweight charcoal burners.

Of course the colonials can row and have their faith over the beginning of the invention, but in the era of the Mongol hordes, as Genghis Khan ran amok throughout the known world of antiquity, his troops didn’t have a Weber bbq so instead they used to cook on upturned shields over an open fire and cook their meat on there, and so probably have the better claim overall.