Bring on the Backyard Barbecues
DINING GUIDE By Julia Romano
It’s a universal fact that the most popular way to bring people together is with food. Everyone loves a delicious meal, and sharing one with those we endear is commonly something that people most enjoy doing together. Summer months in Rhode Island have historically provided a chance for people to bond over food, while creating pleasant memories.
By Julia Romano As we are all too well aware, the COVID-19 onslaught took from us more than we ever could have imagined. With no prior warning, the coronavirus health debacle has prevented us from coming together, even in the outdoors, where in Little Rhody, we look forward to and even crave doing during the summer months. Operation Warp Speed has enabled the country to be very close to putting the pandemic behind us, taking off the face masks, and breathing in fresh air. This is especially true in the sense of being able to congregate with friends and family and returning to spending time together savoring our favorite fare, while thinking about anything but the health crisis of the last eighteen months. When it comes to summer socializing and food, some of the most mouth watering favorites are cooked over a grill in many backyard barbecues. Barbecue (or barbeque) (BBQ) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods which use live fire, coal, and smoke to cook the food. Pork, beef, and chicken are grilled to perfection, while basted with one’s own spices and sauces, creating juicy, tender barbecue. 26 Shop In RI
There is no concrete information about who first thought of the notion of BBQ. The word barbecue has pretty much the same meaning across all languages. Even in Hindi, the word barbecue means meat that has been grilled in a highly seasoned sauce, according to the Hindi-English dictionary online. The word “barbecue” is believed to have originated from the Taino Indian word “barbacoca,” referring to a tool used for cooking over the open flame or the term “sacred fire pit.” Other historians have said that the word could have also come from the French expression “barbe e queue” - which translates literally as “whiskers to tail.” In the days of Imperialism and exploration, it’s likely that French explorers took part in different types of skewering and kabobs. During that time, it was commonplace for French people to gather around a fire, eating some type of critter on a stick that we would cringe at today. In some countries like the Philippines, street vendors will actually now take the bits of food we don’t typically eat, such as the innards, and fry them up over an open flame as a tasty snack. Enough said about that! Barbecue (or spelled barbeque, in different areas)
