Starting a fire

Light the fire starter and form the bridge formation as below. Make sure the two supporting charcoal are higher than the starter but low enough for the flames to reach the ‘bridge’. Put the supporting charcoal as close to the starter as possible so that they can catch fire too.

Step 1. Build surrounding structure, place fire-starter in, light up.

You can create 3 of these for a small pit and up to 5 for a big pit. Watch that the fire does not extinguish from the starter. If it goes out, relight it or replace it with another starter.

Step 2. Place longer & thinner pieces over flame, but do not cover the fire-starter totally. Allow the flame to touch the surrounding structure.

After ten to fifteen minutes, the charcoal would have caught fire. It will show red cracks with a white perimeter. When all the bridges have caught fire, spread them out and fan them until flames erupt from the cracks. It is important that you can see flames coming out. Put more charcoal and keep fanning. These flames are good enough to light up enough charcoal for the whole pit.

A more effective method than fanning is to blow at the charcoal with your mouth. Blow from the corner of your mouth so that the wind is focused and each blow should last at least 5 seconds. Do not blow hard and fast but blow slowly and steadily. Most of the charcoal will glow and the flames will come out after 3 blows.

Wait another 10 minutes for the second wave of charcoal to catch fire before cooking. The pit should be at a very high temperature and flameless. The food should be cooked by the heat of the charcoal and not by the flames. Avoid getting the food cooked by the flame as it is cancerous.

BBQ Tips

Spread butter or oil over the dory, prawns, chicken wings, meat, crab sticks, sausages and satay before laying them on the grill. This keeps the food moist and prevents it from sticking to the wire mesh. It also enhances the flavour of the food. Do remember to butter the other side before flipping it over.             After the potatoes are cooked, you can cut it into quarters and throw in some pieces of butter and watch them melt on the potato.             If the aluminium foil holding the sambal sting ray / sambal sotong is torn, do wrap an additional layer of aluminium foil over the old foil. Make sure it is tightly wrapped so that the food can be cooked properly inside. Otherwise, the chilli will dry up when moisture from the food escapes through the hole during BBQing.             Vegetarians take note! We can fry our bee hoon, rice and noodles vegetarian. Same goes for our curry vege. Other vegetarian food also includes Marshmallows, Choconana, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Corn, Shaolin Stick, Tau Pok, Shiitake Shrooms Skewers, Ketupat, Spring Rolls and Yam Samosa. All our desserts are green as well.