Only charcoal!

Tonight at dinner I met someone that shares my love of charcoal barbeques and disdain of gas grills. This happens from time to time and validates all the grief I get from my wife about the lack of timeliness of my grilling. His idea of good grilling night is that it's long enough to drink two beers and listen to four innings of Tigers baseball on the radio. He also likes the challenge of controlling the coals depending on whether it's fish, chicken, red meat, or vegetables. It was fun to hear his perspective.

Grilling on charcoal requires skill, finesse, patience, and persistence while gas grilling requires almost none. I've been to a few barbeques where the man of the house likes to put on his grilling apron and use the big fold out gas grill with two levels and knobs to control the flame. Sometimes people will gather around and watch while sipping beers. Little do they know they're being duped.

My vote will always go to the charcoal man, even though you'll rarely see more than one or two people watch him toil. Political candidates should be asked 'gas or charcoal?' rather than 'boxers or briefs?'. Last but not least, it tastes better!

So next time you're at a barbeque/cookout with charcoal instead of sniffing about the simple old charcoal grill please just say thank you.