…or will be eventually. Last weekend’s social event was my first barbecue in so long I can’t even remember. I think the last time was at my friend’s farewell party in Maryland in 2008! Courtesy of my partner’s friend’s sister, I found myself in a beautiful, large backyard in a house in Sandpoort, close to Haarlem. It made me wish I had a garden. There were flowers everywhere and even a resident rabbit, which I felt kinda sorry for since it seemed to badly want to get out of its cage. Since houses in the neighborhood run in the 500 thousand range, I may just have to wait a little while before dreaming of tulips and topiaries. 

While it may be summer over here, it was pretty clear mother nature wasn’t having any of it. Not only was it intermittently cloudy and gray, it even rained in the mid-afternoon so much so that we couldn’t get started getting the grill ready. Once there was a lull, and after constant checks with the local weather bureau, the equipment finally came out. It wasn’t long after that a lot of muscle work came into play as we started fanning for our lives getting the charcoal to fire up. Although a ventilator would have been nice, we made do with whatever was in the garage – a rusty iron dustpan and a rattan rug beater.

As comedic as it was, it did get the job done. We did eventually get to eating sooner than I expected, about an hour after the frantic fanning started. After a feast of beef, chicken, pork, more chicken, and more pork – and no rabbit, thankfully – I was stuffed. If any future barbecue feasts are anything like this, I’d probably want that garden sooner than later.