End of Summer BBQ

On last bank holiday of the summer - sort of the equivalent to Labor Day in US - I took a couple of days off and lazed around. It was lovely. By Monday I was ready to see some folks and invited some Australian friends over for a BBQ, which I had been threatening to do for some time. Unfortunately I didn't have a BBQ, but had seen these clever disposable things in grocery stores. So I headed out to check out the newly revamped Sainsbury's on Finchley Road. Sainsbury's is basically like Publix - its an upper-mid market grocery store with everything. I am a Waitrose shopper, which is like saying I'm a Whole Foods shopper - it implies you are idiot who pays too much for your food, but the stores are smaller and are more to shop in because they are less like bus stations.

ANYWAY, I headed out for the newly refurbished Sainsbury's and had that feeling I usually get when I walk into store of over 200,000 SF, "would I ever really need a grocery store this big?" There are aisles with nothing in them but canned food. The aisle are so long that you can see the curvature of the earth. They had a season aisle - always a favourite for me. What will the season aisle bring? IN this case it was a decimated aisle of summer-like products; sunscreen, unbreakable plastic products, very breakable chairs, sun umbrellas, a smattering of garden related implements, slug pellets, compost, and etc. They also were having an end of the season sale on disposable BBQ - two sizes small and family size. They are aluminum (or aluminium as we say here in the Great British Isles) trays with flammable briquets leashed in the tray under a sort-of-grill thing. You put it on its cute little stand which is made of something like a wire coat hanger. Then it requires that you place it on a non-flammable surface. Tough to do in my back yard since its all paved in railroad ties (known as sleepers here). So I rigged up a table with a big tray and balanced on the tray is a big slab of slate that usually holds cheese at dinner parties.

I was really pleased (chuffed) at how cleverly I rigged up the grilling gadget. I thought even my "of-shore ready" sister would have found my improvisation acceptable. Everything went off like a charm, the BBQ worked great, we had great burgers that tasted like they had been grilled. Good thing I bought three of those disposable BBQs