How many White kids does it take to light a viet BBQ?
Wait I should back up.
In Vietnam, alot of the outdoor cooking is done on tiny, portable BBQs. They are basically a clay or concrete cylinder with fireproof bricking on the inside. They stick a cylinder of compressed charcoal in the center of it, and grill on top.
So, because we have a patio, we got one of these contraptions, which then sat in our living room for a few weeks before yesterday when Margot suggested that it would be time to bust it out and give it a shot.We got all the trimmings for a nice Steak, mashed potatoes and salad and set forth to get’r done.
It was nearly 2 in the afternoon, and it seemed like a good idea to try and get it going for dinner.
Obviously, we knew we had to burn the charcoal, and get it in the BBQ. But we wernt quite sure on how to get the thing going.
Of course, we have seen the locals using these things everyday since we got here. What they normally do, is as the last charcoal cylinder is burning out, they place a new on on top of the old one. The old one lights the new one and the cycle repeats all day and a good chunk of the evening.
I think to my self “maybe we need some sort of accelerant”, so off I went to look for some lighter fluid or something similar. But since it was Sunday, and alot of things are closed I had no luck.
We still needed to light the first one somehow. We stuck it on the stove and fired it up. after about 20 min, it looked to be burning fairly well - all red and burning like, so we put the charcoal in the BBQ and carried the whole contraption outside to keep going. It didn’t look promising, but you know maybe it will get going at some point.
In the hopes that it would eventually warm up some, Margot and the rest of the house guests left to get a mid afternoon snack, and look for some lighterfluid / twigs / something else to kick start combustion.
I stayed home to make sure we didn’t burn the house down. My careful watch was not needed however, as it soon stopped smoking - and stopped producing heat.
I remembering back to Cub scouts thought to myself.. well we never used any kindling or smaller pieces to light the big pieces. So i dumped out the BBQ and hacked up a chunk of charcoal to see if i could use smaller pieces to light larger ones. I made a mess and covered my self in charcoal dust, - but still no fire.
Id wait till the others get back and see what they found out, I thought to my self, as i made my self a snack and watched some tv.,
Once the others returned, they informed me that they met a viet person who could understand what we where trying to do and offered the advice that we just need to start a fire on the bottom and put the charcoal on top and it it should go.
Ok - easy enough.
Jake and Margot started shoving paper and cardboard into the BBQ and lighting it on fire, while i started making kindling out of sticks the others brought home. Em and Izzy watched with growing concern and offered suggestions as smoke billowed out of the top of the flaming smoky mess. they placed the charcoal on top and started piling more burning paper on top. There was more smoke, alot of ash, some fire - but no actual ignition.
Clearly lighting a fire from the top was not working, so we emptied out the BBQ, and i build a nice little fire pile on the bottom out of paper, shaved wood, and some cut up sticks they brought home. Once it got going - it looked great. Solid flame, good amounts of heat - awesome. We added a charcoal peice, and flame shot up all around it - a promising sign, and we looked and watched and hoped.
Then the fire went out having burnt up all the easily consumable fuel.
Out of fuel and ideas, Jake went down to get some sticky rice, and asked the lady how they light the damn things. Turns out they use some kinda electric powered heating coil to get it going.
But, by now around 6:30 on a Sunday - all the stores where closed.
We pan fried the steak.
Between the five of us - we have a fairly high level of experience lighting fires. Cooking fires, bonfires, wood burning stoves and so on. By in large, if someone asked, anyone of us to could easily start the fire while camping, - any one of us could have done it as easy as anything. But we where foiled by the viet BBQ.
Now we know. Next weekend there will be delicious grilled food.
