What's on YOUR BBQ bro?

It's a well known fact Australian's love the outdoors. It's got a lot to do with the amazing weather we have here for a lot of the year; There's extremes of weather here of course, but generally Aussie's can get out and about for most of the year and on any given day you'll see us out enjoying the outdoors in public and in our backyards.

Typically our outdoor escapades are accompanied by a few items we feel are non-negotiable. Our BBQ grill, and the appropriate flesh to put on there, a cold-box (we call them Esky's) full of ice and drinks, some folding chairs, a football or cricket bat and ball and well...That's the essentials. Don't worry about the non-essential things like salad-greens, sun-block, paper plates, hamburger buns (right @mattclarke?)...Oh, one must have potato salad so insert that in the essentials list above. Ah, I almost forgot...A mandatory BBQ accoutrement is the novelty apron. No novelty apron, no BBQ. Hey, that's the rules man, don't blame me...

You know I'm only kidding right? We're Aussie's mate, we'd never get caught out at a BBQ without ALL the right gear and the awesome part is that no matter the situation we have a great time even if it's a simple sausage, bread and tomato sauce BBQ. We LOVE IT! BBQ's are our thing.

Oh, if you are one of those people (mainly American's) who think that, "throwing a shrimp on the barbie" is a thing let me dispel the myth. It ain't! Some asshole marketing company came up with that and got that idiot Paul Hogan (aka Crocodile Dundee) to blab on about it on tourism commercials on your TV 's. I'm 48 years old and have lived my entire life here and have never seen a shrimp on a barbie. We call them prawns not shrimp anyway and I reckon a bloke would get bashed to within an inch of his life by his mates if he threw a shrimp on the barbie. In my 48 years I've been to a lot of BBQ's...Lets call it five hundred and thirty seven million, gazillion, bazillion BBQ's and am yet to see a shrimp on a barbie. Ok, savvy? No FKN shrimps.

Every household in Australia has a BBQ of some sort. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) actually tax non-BBQ-having households at a higher rate until they actually obtain a BBQ. Seriously, That's true. I'm not even joking.

So come Sunday afternoon at every household in Australia the BBQ gets fired up. Seriously, every household. We are all the same in that...All Aussies...What does differ however is what we put on the BBQ.

There's no rules of course, it's open-slather. Some put lamb on their BBQ and others beef, chicken or pork. Fish is becoming more popular and I have had some awesome Northern Territory Barramundi BBQ's in my time. Google it. I've seen vegetarian BBQ's also of course plus kangaroo, camel, buffalo, crocodile, goat and just about any edible item you could imagine put on a BBQ grill. OK, I'll concede that I have actually seen shrimp on a BBQ but that didn't end well for the guy that put it there. Firstly he called it shrimp and secondly he put it on the BBQ. The ambulance crew took him away after he "tripped" over and got bashed up but I don't think he ever made it to hospital once they found out what he did with that shrimp (prawn).

We're now in spring and heading into summer so we are well inside the prime BBQ season and every Australian household will be BBQ-ing. It's a very multicultural country these days and there's likely to be a BBQ of every nation on most streets in Australia, the resulting smells are enticing, exotic and as varied as the people that this vast country holds. We all BBQ in our own way...Even shrimp guy although he does it at his peril. What's great is that we come together around the BBQ; We're just a bunch of people standing around burning flesh and drinking beverages in a social ritual that has taken place since we first worked out that burned meat was better than raw thousands of years ago.

If you're not an Aussie but get a chance to be here someday you need to make sure you get yourself invited to an Aussie BBQ. There's many Steemit user's I'd be happy to have in my back yard. You know who you are. And who knows, maybe I'll let you have a go on the tongs...So, if you're on my BBQ list, and you know it, then invite yourself!