Party for your country
Cayla Dengate
'Don't worry," Dad said as thick, black smoke billowed out of the barbecue. "The first sausage always burns."
There is a rule in our house that the barbecue is the man's domain. Sure, women can observe, and most definitely make the accompaniments, but when it comes to turning a steak and sausage, it's Dad's job.
It's also Dad's job to put out any fires created in the process, and go to the shops to pick up extra sausages when the first lot burns.
But on Australia Day, no one seems to mind if the snags are blackened or the steaks are well done. In fact, it's almost expected. Like the summer heat and the ever-orbiting flies, a burnt snag is part of the rough and ready Australian way of life.
Australia Day is a time to relish our own cliches throw a prawn on the barbie, pour half your VB on to a barbecuing steak, take off your double-plugger thongs and frisbee them at your mates.
Add to that some newer traditions like the Big Day In lazing about recovering from Big Day Out while listening to Triple J's Hottest 100, or on the other end of the scale, preparing a high-brow culinary feast with all-Australian ingredients.
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF ALL THINGS AUSTRALIAN WITH THE AUSTRALIA DAY QUIZ
No matter how you choose to celebrate, there are a few vital ingredients for a good Australia Day party, and one is a barbecue.
CIT director of the Center for Tourism and Hotel Management Stuart Walsh is Canberra's unofficial barbecue expert. As the previous executive chef at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club, he knows barbecues can be classy affairs.
"Australia Day falls in the right time of year for a barbecue," he says. "The sun is shining and it's the perfect weather to grab a bowl of salad and barbecue some lamb chops they're tasty and so quick to barbecue for a party outdoors."
He said the "first sausage always burns" phenomenon is well documented. "The most common mistake when barbecuing is people have it too hot. It chars the outside of the meat, and then it's almost impossible to cook the inside.
"Another common mistake is that when making your own marinade, a lot of people put too much sugar in it. Marinades with high sugar tend to burn rather than cook. It's better to start cooking marinade meats on a low heat on the hotplate then finish it off over the flames."
Then there's the seafood. Walsh recommends barbecuing anything in a shell, especially prawns, bugs and crayfish.
"Seafood works well on modern barbecues that have a hood you can pull down and heat it up, almost creating an oven. The best way to cook seafood is to turn it down low, put the hood down and cook it slowly, then you can go off and enjoy yourself while it's cooking."
And enjoy you will with a few adult-friendly Australia Day games. Create your own citizenship test with the ever-important questions about Australia, such as "What colour were Australian starlet Kylie Minogue's hotpants in Spinning Around?"; "Which 1930s prime minister frequently wrote love letters to his wife in Tasmania?"; "Which other poet did Banjo Patterson verbally duel with about city versus country?"
If you're not feeling proactive, you can always rely on Carlton Draft bottle top trivia to entertain guests.
There is an unofficial rule that Australia Day will always be hot. The sun gods must love our sunburnt country, and never fail to deliver a scorcher, so the beer tastes better, the sausages cook faster, and the plunge into a pool is all the more refreshing.
Staying cool becomes of prime importance, yet the days of Slip n Slide and running rampant under the sprinkler are over. There are simple ways to stay cool without draining the territory's precious water resources. The easiest option is to choose a site near a river or lake, and in Canberra, we're spoiled for choice. Laze about the sheltered southern shores of Lake Burley Griffin, join the barbecuers at the Cotter or for a more secluded spot, try Kambah Pool or take the boat out on Molonglo River.
If you'd rather stay at home, pick up a few shallow blow-up wading pools with just enough water to splash about in.
Keep in mind that Australia Day isn't about perfection. The sausages will inevitably burn. Someone will nick your Coopers and replace it with Four X. Mum will put too much zinc on the kids and if you're really lucky, the stars will come out at night, and as the Southern Cross shines brightly, Uncle Albert will take all his clothes off and dive bomb into the pool. Now that's Australian.
Source:The Canberra Times
Happy Australia Day!
