Grilling Around the World
Global grills
In Europe in general, grilling is rather straightforward in terms of the marinades. In North America, we’re very big on rubs – barbecue rubs.
— Steven Raichlen, PBS host and author of "Planet Barbecue"
Connoisseurs of American barbecue esteem cities such as Memphis, Kansas City, Austin, and Lexington, North Carolina for their barbecuing prowess. But other places around the world, ranging from India to Japan, have their own cherished traditions of barbecue, some of them centuries older than the proud legacy of American grilling.
Steven Raichlen, a prolific writer on the topic of international foods – especially barbecue – is fascinated by the interconnection of food, culture and history around the world.
A Fulbright scholar and James Beard Award-winning author, Raichlen has written more than 25 books about world food and hosts the PBS television series “Primal Grill.” His most recent book, “Planet Barbecue,” documents his grilled-food tasting travels across 50 countries.
For him, barbecue is a worldwide phenomenon.
World’s Oldest Cooking Method
“What I like about barbecue is that grilling is universal; it’s the world’s oldest cooking method,” Raichlen said. “Everywhere you go it is done differently, so it’s sort of a great way to travel around the world and dive deeply into other cultures through their food.”
Americans have a specific definition for barbecue that differs from that of the rest of the world, Raichlen said. In the U.S., “barbecue” is a term reserved for a national specialty – a type of slow smoking on a grill – as distinct from faster, high-heat grilling. In most of the world, he said, when you say “barbecue,” you mean grilling.
“When you talk about true barbecue in the style of Memphis or Kansas City, it’s a low-heat method with a lot of wood smoked for a lot of time, big hunks of meat,” said Raichlen. “There are really only two other countries that do that a little bit: one is Jamaica, with its famous jerk pork and other jerk dishes; the other is Mexico, with a dish called ‘barbacoa,’ which, depending on the part of Mexico, can be a goat, a sheep or a cow’s head cooked low and slow.
“In Europe in general, grilling is rather straightforward in terms of the marinades. In North America, we’re very big on rubs – barbecue rubs,” he said.
Top Grilling Countries
Asking a grilled-food writer to name the best country for live-fire grilling is like asking a film critic to name a favorite director. Instead, Raichlen discussed his top six countries for grilling expertise and the genre they embrace.
Indonesia, Japan, India, Turkey, Argentina and Brazil stand above the rest when it comes to grilling over open flames, Raichlen said. Here are his descriptions of their singular stamps on grilling:
Indonesia: The classic Indonesian barbecue, satay, is a tiny kebab that comes in at least 200 varieties, depending on the location in Indonesia. The meat, the seasonings and the accompaniments vary. Indonesia also has a traditional spit-roasted whole hog, babi panggang, similar to the pig-roasting tradition of the U.S.
Japan: In this land where small is beautiful, the classic barbecue, robata yaki, includes yakitori, or grilled chicken kebobs; grilled vegetable kebobs; grilled rice balls; and grilled Kobe beef. Japanese barbecue is remarkable not only for its small size but also for the incredibly high heat used in cooking -- the charcoal, cincho tan, generates temperatures up to 1,000 degrees -- and the simplicity of the flavorings. The goal, Raichlen said, is to make the food taste like itself, as opposed to American barbecue, where the goal is to transform food utterly with spice.
India: India is famous for an upright barbecue oven called a tandoor. What India brings to the table includes a roster of grilled breads such as naan, a yeast bread cooked on the superheated stone wall of this oven. Barbecue here is all about the spices, Raichlen said. Marinades might contain 12 or 15 different spices and can be yogurt-based. “In a sense,” he said, “the kind of meat matters less than the seasoning.”
Turkey: Turkey is the birthplace of the shish kebob, and the variety of lamb kebobs is incredible. They also cook whole lambs in underground, charcoal-burning pits that are larger than the Indian tandoor, but Raichlen said, “Turkey is all about shish kebob.”
Argentina: Argentina has two distinct styles of barbecue: parilla, a variety of steaks, organ meats, blood sausages, intestines and sweetbreads grilled over wood or charcoal; and asado, in which whole small pigs or sides of beef are stuck on stakes around a campfire in a simple, primal cooking method that is “utterly primitive and utterly delicious,” Raichlen said.
Brazil: Brazilians have raised spit roasting to a high art. Brazilian barbecue, called churrasco, uses a huge variety of spit-roasted meat cooked on a charcoal rotisserie. The most famous, picanhaa, is top sirloin with a thick tab of fat on it, spit roasted and then very thinly sliced. “It may be some of the most amazing rotisserie beef you’ve ever tasted,” Raichlen said.
Although the type of grill varies across borders, probably the most widely used grill is a mangal, an open metal box with charcoal at the bottom but no grate, Raichlen said.
“What people do is they put food either in a grill basket or on a skewer and they cook it over the charcoal without a grill grate,” he said.
Barbecue Competition Is Heating Up
Despite their own longstanding barbecue traditions, other countries are trying out the American slow-cook, smoker style of grilling. Countries such as Russia, Thailand, Norway, Mexico, South Africa, Canada and the United Kingdom have become more active in sending barbecue crews to the U.S. for competitions, said Carolyn Wells, executive director of the Kansas City Barbeque Society.
Similarly, European barbecue organizations increasingly are sanctioning U.S.-style barbecue contests of their own.
The World Barbecue Association, headquartered in Switzerland, partnered with the Kansas City society to hold a spring contest in 2012, the Tony Stone Low & Slow BBQ Competition in Zaandam, Netherlands. Wayne Lohman, a frequent judge and former board member of the society, who was part of a judging panel at the Tony Stone competition, said he sees a lot of rivalry between West European neighbors Germany, Switzerland and Belgium regarding live-fire grilling in general.
Although Europeans such as the Germans and Swiss are trying their culinary hands at the U.S. slow-cook, spice-rub style, their contributions to cook-offs like Tony Stone is to retain one of their competition traditions: a contest that is about the entire plate rather than just the cooked meat.
“It’s wonderful, this sharing,” said Lohman. “With programs on the Food Channel and stuff like that, just as we will invite French chefs to learn about pastries, (the World Barbecue Association is) inviting us to demonstrate and is taking part in our style.”
- Photo Credit Andrew Watson/Photolibrary/Getty Images
