BBQ and A

Dear John,

In response to your email regarding the definition of the term BBQ.

No legitimate definition starts out with "First of all let me say...." That would be someones opinion. Granted, that slow and smoked style of cooking is referred to as BBQ here in the U.S. it is not exclusively limited to that definition.

Here is an explanation of what I mean when we discuss cooking in the backyard.

If you are cooking anything under the stars and over a fire, you are engaged in the delicious act of barbeque/barbecue/bbq/barbie (ing)

Barbecue can also be used as a noun to describe the apparatus from which the fire source manifests. Whether it be it a crude campfire (see below) or a overpriced high end outdoor cooking unit

Let's move onto the part that gets tricky

The grill (example pictured above) is a slated metal plate on which the food item is placed. Its purpose is to separate the food from the fire and to protect it from falling into the fire.
Now back to the campire

A campfire consists of a crude hole in the ground that works as a containment area for a "handcrafted" fire. The fire typically includes but is not limited to random bits of bark, leaves, twigs and sticks usually foraged from the immediate vicinity of the said hole aka campfire site.

I hope this has cleared things up for you and anyone else who is lucky enough to have an Australian in their life whose colloquialisms they have trouble understanding at times.

Here is an example of how these words could be used in an everyday conversation

Me: "Can we BBQ tonight"

You: "You're the best girlfriend ever so what ever you want"

Me: "Great, you should clean the grill first though"

You: "Good idea"

Me: "We should go camping again soon, making smores in a campfire is fun"

You: "OK, I do love having sex with you in a tent"

Me: "Hooray"

....and scene