BBQ, what's on the menu?

Organizing a bbq is never an easy task and apart from getting everybody together, planning the menu can be quite a chore.

Particularly when budget is a major concern and fellow diners having food restrictions (no pork, no beef and no whatsoever meat), chicken becomes the main ingredient for almost all the dishes. The thought of sausages, satays and chicken wings just sound so boring.

Some years ago, a search on google led me to a couple of barbeque recipes and one of them is chicken kebabs (A pack of chicken thigh or chicken fillet is about $5.20, enough for 20 sticks). In order to retain the juice in the meat, I have rolled up thin slices of chicken thigh and that the chicken is marinated with garlic, lemon, dried mixed herbs. With some slices of capcicums, onions, pineapple and bacon-rolled asparagus, this dish is a good appetizers and well-liked by most.

Apart from the regular marination, the combination of capcicums and onions goes very well with tandoori-styled chicken fillet.

Satays are easily available at City Satay ($16 for 50 sticks) along Tanjong Katong Road and are sold in pack of 50 sticks.


I have tried bbq-ing stingray and mackerel wrapped in aluminium foil but I never expect myself to experience bbq-ing a whole Red Snapper (Each fish costs about $10.25 each at Carrefour). Marination is kept simple with ginger, salt, pepper and lemon garlic. With this foldable grill, grilling a whole fish is so much easier. With constant brushing of oil and occasional flipping of the fish, one will be surprised by the tenderness its meat can be.


Frozen lamb shoulder chuck (promotional price, about $30 for 1.5kg) can be considered and the staff at Giant can slice them into pieces with a thickness of 1/2 inch. Seasoned with dried Rosemary and Parsley, and grilled over charcoal flame, one can expect the overall effect to be pretty good.

Ribeye steak ($32.10 per kg was the promotional price and each piece is averagely $8) was on offer during our visit to Carrefour and these 3/4 inch thick steak requires stronger and good charcoal embers. These steaks are easy to handle as it can be marinated on the spot with lemon garlic, parsley, salt and pepper. A pair of kitchen scissors makes eating more convenient when cut into small pieces.


For some selection of vegetables, grilled swiss brown mushrooms (a box of approximately 8 to 10 pieces will cost $3.50 at Carrefour) is one of the tastier choice. Just leave the fungi on the grill and these can be served after observing some fluid being accumulated on the mushroom caps.


Apart from the mentioned dishes, we have gotten pre-marinated pork ribs ($14 for 2 slabs, vaccum packed and sold frozen) from Wang Foong Foodstuffs Suppliers Pte Ltd (at 48 Woodlands Terrace, Tel: 67594388). This is the same pork ribs available at Cold Storage but at a cheaper price. As these ribs have been grilled in the oven at home, these ribs just needs to be warmed up over the charcoal embers.


Hopefully, this post is useful for bbq-menu planners.