This year we welcomed a new member to the Jerzeetomato family of grills. This sweet satay grill that The Principessa gave me last Christmas. It’s what Thai street vendors use for those skewers of bliss. Hats off to the good folks import food.com for importing this.
It’s official. A recent inventory of my garage revealed SEVEN different types of charcoal.
It’s really quite embarrassing. I can’t help myself. I see a new brand of hardwood at the store and I have to try a bag. I mean, I’m not as wrapped up in it as the Naked Whiz, but I fear I’m headed down that path.
It started this summer with the discovery that Kingsford got religion and started marketing lump hardwood. Then of course I had to try their new “Competition Briquettes”. I went to my local BGE dealer and they had BGE brand lump. I had to try that. And I noticed at the local Shoprite they had one of my favorites “Cowboy” brand lump. I didn’t buy any because I’m running out of room but once we get the air conditioner out of storage in the garage we’ll have more room. So maybe then….
“Give me two bricks and an oven rack and some wood, and I’ll cook you a better steak than any expensive gas grill, hands down. It might look good in your garden, it might be more convenient, it might impress your friends, but it’s not going to cook you a better steak.”
-Chris Schlesinger, Owner, East Coast Grill, Cambridge, MA
I take a pretty hard line when it comes to the debate of charcoal versus gas for grilling. When someone tries to extol the benefits of gas to me I usually reply with a comment along the lines of “If I wanted to cook with gas, I’d stay in my kitchen” I took a class with Chris Schlesinger once, who, when asked about cooking times for a gas grill on whatever he was making replied: “I don’t know. I don’t cook with gas.”
When I lived in an apartment and gas was all I could get away with, I used gas. But ever since we moved into our current house, I have sneered at the gas-aholics whenever the subject came up.
Until a few summers ago. That’s when after years of toiling in our non-centrally-air-conditioned kitchen I hit upon the idea of usuing a gas grill as a sort of “outdoor oven” to keep the heat down in the kitchen. With a company awarded gift certificate we aquired a cheap s*#t gas model from Sears. Since then we’ve baked bread, tarts, crumbles and roasted oven-dried tomatoes in the damn thing. Between the heretic gas grill and the BGE, we rarely turn the kitchen oven on at all during July and August.
Memorial Day weekend traditionally kicks off the summer grilling season, so I ask you, loyal readers to weigh in. The gloves are off. Which do you prefer?
JerzeeTomato 