The Great Australian BBQ

This is a public BBQ. They are absolutely everywhere. The local authority website says there are more than 380 in and around Gold Coast. Three hundred and eighty. This one is very basic actually. Often they are under some kind of roof, like a permanent gazebo I guess, with a kind of split kitchen/dining areas.

This is at Nelson's local bit of beach, and seriously they are dotted along the seafront every few hundred yards. They are serviced and cleaned regularly by what we would refer to as the local council. You see people using them ALL THE TIME, and they are free to use - see below.

Now I suppose you could split hairs and say that an electric BBQ is really pretty much just an electric grill or hotplate, which is basically true: it's an outdoor cooker.  None of that mucking about with waiting for your charcoal briquettes to be perfect little lumps of heat exuding embers like we do at home. 

In fact, I had a very odd conversation with Nelson about getting a BBQ 'pack'. I thought he meant one of those tinfoil mini-barbecue trays with the charcoal in it, like you might take to the beach to cook a few sausages on...he was referring to a huge pre-packed selection of meat and snags*. What was I thinking? It'd get more than a few laughs if you cracked open one of those babies out here, that much is for sure. In fact, you could probably build a whole stand-up career out of it I reckon...

Anyway. The thing that really marks this whole business out for me is that it is FREE. Just rock up and use it, no dramas.

Seems to me that Australians - Australia as a nation in total and utter accord in fact - regard the outdoor cook-up as a basic human right. I wonder if it's written into their constitution somewhere? I really hope so.

*Sausages. Here sausages are mostly made with beef. I can't quite feel right about that so far, and have yet to try one.

(By the way...It's good form to leave the public BBQ clean and tidy, which everybody seems to do - see my previous comment about the notable lack of litter pretty much everywhere. While there do seem to be a few horror stories about certain types of 'misuse' of these facilities - I will spare you the details - most Aussies seem pretty pragmatic about it, and simply advise a good clean and good heat up before cooking on one. I am a big fan of this attitude.)