BBQ Spring 2017 | Page 47

connect all who take a minute to know it better and taste it most importantly. Old people or little children and everybody in between likes BBQ just the same. Loving it. In fact even some vegetarians can't resist. This is rooted very deeply in our mind and soul. We are born with this liking for the smoke, fire and meat combo. Call it self preservation if you will.
The real problem is that people started to forget about cooking with fire and smoke long before we introduced traditional BBQ to our homes and tables. Of course it is impossible to generalize but we will put our efforts to bring fire and smoke back into cooking and living where it belongs. Low & slow is so much more than just a method to make food. If you let yourself in and embrace it life actually becomes more beautifull. Low and slow. Breathe.
Slovenia is a small but culturally very rich country. Even though you can make a criss cross drive in let's say roughly six hours it is as diverse as it can be. Regionally we have fine culinary traditions. Also wine and beer are very well present. Especially craft beer in the last years has reached unimaginable levels of both quality and popularity. Lots of brewers are also BBQ people at the same time. That is good news always but I don't have enough words for this today. As with many other cultures we smoke our charcuterie and still use the smoke in traditional meat preservation recipies.
We have top chefs using smoke as a spice in their creations. Slovenia was not a smokeless country, not at all. Being a part of the Balkans which are extremely rich in tradtional grilled food, it is very common to find fine Balkan style grilled food available if you know where to go. This also encourages local homemade charcoal production more and more. There is some very fine home made charcoal available through out the country. A living artisan product originating from the iron ages.
We have the smoke in our system so to speak but more problematic is the loss of knowledge and lack of any respect for ingredients which is not very encouraging. There is really no secret to it just the way of fire and smoke to follow and an awareness to gain which is sometimes the most