Thrill of the grill
An island feast for every season
Ella Laloba
In the mainland summer means barbecue. But here in the islands, firing up the grill is an everday affair. Cooking in open fire is a natural pleasure
And there's much more than the requisite burgers and steaks.
The fragrance of savory smoke fills the air on every island. You can find fresh fish, chicken, beef and pork corn on the cob and even lobster cooked on spits, placed over coals, in state of the art ovens - or just an open fire on the beach.
They range from sweet and spicy to hot hot hot.
The barbecue dates back to ancient times when food was placed on sticks and held over smoldering embers. The Spaniards found the Carib Indians cooking their game and fish on green-wood grills called barbacoas, suspended above pits, heated with wood fires. Public celebrations were occasions for outdoor feasting on a grand scale.
Then in the nineteenth century, the cast iron kitchen range replaced the open fire cooking.
Until the middle of the twentieth century only campers and picnickers paid much attention to outdoor cooking. Later city-dwellers turned their backyards into barbecues.
Uncle Joe's BBQ, a legend in the center of St. John's Cruz Bay, always has a cloud of sweet scented smoke near its entrance. Joe Harrigan, a native of Anguilla, serves up delectable ribs, chicken and steak.- and if you're in luck - lobster.
He lets everyrhing laze over a gas fired grill, lathering it with his own seductive sauce. The open-air restaurant, with a half dozen tables, doesn't even have a sign you can see, but visitors, embarking from the nearby ferry dock, let their nose lead the way. Joe's alone is worth a trip to St. John.
Photo: Joe Harrigan at the grill in Cruz Bay St. John. virginvoices .com photo by D.B. Bostdorf
Ella Laloba loves to put fresh fish on the grill.
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