Good Grill Guide: How to Host a Bad-Ass Beijing BBQ

Got an underused roof terrace or balcony? Nothing equals good times with friends quite like the sizzle-and-smoke of home-grilled meat, so we’ve put together this fact-filled guide to help you get your grill on. Girls, look away now. This is about fire, meat and a less-than-rudimentary grasp of gastronomy. The boys are cooking.

GET A GRILL

This is vital. A barbecue without a barbecue is no fun at all. Your guests will edge backwards uncomfortably when they discover the omission, with weird, forced smiles on their faces, sausages hanging limply from their hands.

For compact, basic grills, Wal-Mart is a good place to start. Standard grills on wheels (about 60cm across, suitable for a small to medium gathering) start at RMB 128. A fancier silver type (RMB 189) with stumpy fold-out legs is better if you plan to take it on trips. Wal-Mart also stocks tiny little barbecues that can fit four burger patties at a time (RMB 60-80). Inside the store, the BBQ gear is to be found in the “outdoor” section, along with other useful accessories like beverage coolers and fold-out chairs.

If you’d rather not line the pockets of Sam Walton, seek out Dongjiao Market, a short walk southeast of Dawang Lu subway station. Here you’ll find the “Dongjiao International Hotel Utensils Hall” (signage in English). Dig about for a few basic grills (RMB 100-200) and handy accessories like metal and wooden skewers and hinged grill baskets (good for chicken).

If size is everything, Shunyi’s Villa Lifestyles has backyard monsters (gas or charcoal) with cute names like Smokey Joe that start at about RMB 1,500; they also have stainless steel grilling tools, grill thermometers and even something called a “marinade injector.” For slightly cheaper large-scale barbecues, Laitai Flower Market at Nüren Jie has a selection amongst the garden furniture.

EAT MY COAL

Fire it up, baby. Wal-Mart has 2kg sacks of instant lighting charcoal for RMB 20. For fancier fuel, Jenny Lou’s stocks Kingsford wood chips (mesquite or hickory) for RMB 35-45 – it’s usually found with the pet food. April Gourmet seems to offer bigger sacks of Kingsford, as well as odorless charcoal lighter fluid.

MYOB (Make Your Own Burgers)

Nothing beats making your own. Good quality beef is ground fresh daily at Metro Cash and Carry stores around town. You can also buy all your other BBQ fixings there too, making it a handy one-stop solution. Boucherie Michel sells juicy steak haché for your patty-shaping pleasure (RMB 6 per jin), as well as pre-skewered beef and veggie kebabs (RMB 11.5 per 100g) and chunky pork chipolatas, chorizo and other stylish saucisson (RMB 5-10 per 100g). For top-grade German sausages, Schindler’s has everything from bratwurst to Munich white sausage, plus a fine selection of mustards.

STEAKS ARE HIGH

If you’re out to impress, wieners or beef in bread might not cut it. Home delivery site Baode delivers classy imported steaks as thick as paving slabs direct to your door. A branch of a catering company that supplies fancy hotels in Beijing and Shanghai, they now deal with small home orders. It’s a slick service – no cash exchange required. Order online for next-day delivery, a guy shows up with a freezer bag of frozen meat and scans your pre-loaded cash card.

We tried the “premium grass-fed ribeye” (RMB 68 per 300g) and the “premium grain-fed strip loin” (RMB 90 per 400g). “Really good quality – delicious” was one diner’s response. “Thick enough that you can sear it properly and still have it rare in the middle,” declared another. ’Nuff said.

MUTTON GRUMBLE

Beijing is a lamb-grillin’ city, so get with the program and pick up some top-grade xiao yang at Beijing Jinyao Lu Niu Yang Rou Shangdian (北京金耀路牛羊肉商店). The halal meat comes from Xilin in Inner Mongolia, and the expert Hui butchers can debone the whole animal in seconds, making it a cinch for you to skewer your own gourmet chuan’r or simply marinate and cook huge chunks of tender meat directly on the grill. Lamb shoulder and leg meat ranges from RMB 20-25 per jin. Think you might need extra in a hurry? The shop stays open until 8.30pm each evening.

SAUCY BUNS

For something to drizzle, Jenny Lou’s or April Gourmet is your best bet for big-brand bastes like Bull’s-Eye BBQ sauce (RMB 25) and A.1. Steak Sauce (RMB 26). The best burger buns are probably April Gourmet’s own-brand two-pack (RMB 3.5) – thick and doughy, so they do a great job of holding in the meat juices.

BACKYARD FOR HIRE

If you lack suitable outdoor space, you can hire it – with grill – at a couple of venues around town. Great Leap Brewery will open early (noon) on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and sell beer to private parties, who can make use of the grill and grilling gear in the courtyard for RMB 500. You bring the food, fun and charcoal, then regular punters drift in later on in the afternoon from 4pm.

HOME PLATE BAR-B-QUE GRILL TIPS

Summertime, but the grillin’ ain’t easy. We asked Adam Murray, the co-owner and cook of Home Plate Bar-B-Que, for his top grill tips.

1. “Use a charcoal chimney starter instead of lighter fluid – basically a round tube of metal with newspaper on the bottom. That way your meat won’t taste of kerosene. I got my chimney at Villa Lifestyles in Shunyi.”

2. “Flip your burger just once, and don’t press it. You don’t want to get rid of those juices – that’s the flavor. Also, if pressed out, the juices will catch fire on the coals and burn your meat.”

3. “Keep your grill grate clean. Scrape off excess bits when still hot and wipe it with oil before using it again.”

4. “You can turn a regular kettle grill into a smoker and do proper southern American barbecue like we do at Home Plate. Heap charcoal to one side, a water pan on the other under the meat, then steadily put woodchips on the charcoal every 30 minutes. That’s how I first smoked meat before I had my smoker, and the results are great.”

Comments

New comments are displayed first.

nothing better than winter smoking. Standing in ankle deep snow behind a utility shed to hide the bbq is a great way to start.

"Kingsford Wood Chips are not for fuel. You soak them in water and put them on top of the fuel to create smoke. Mmmmm...smell that smoke. Now, what kind of experts are you??"

This facebook response is something.
Never use wood chips for fuel, it's impossible to maintain a constant temperature, which is why I mentioned you should add wood chips onto an already established charcoal fire. Also, soaking the chips in fire will accomplish 3 things, the wood will absorb some of the water and increase in weight by 5% or so, the wood chips soaked in water will seemingly produce more smoke (it's smoke, yes, and steam), and the temp of your smoker will decrease a bit more rapidly because water and fire have a bit of a contentious relationship.

So kids, don't put water on a fire unless you want to extinguish the fire! But it sure looks pretty! Another exclamation point!

one Facebook reader points out:

"Kingsford Wood Chips are not for fuel. You soak them in water and put them on top of the fuel to create smoke. Mmmmm...smell that smoke. Now, what kind of experts are you??"

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20