My Alphabetic Life in Australia (B)

B is for BARBECUE and BYO.

Living in another country will automatically make you learn a new culture. This is what I learn during my study in Australia. As I start to live in this country, I find some ‘unique’ culture that hardly can be found in Indonesia. One of the examples is barbecue.

Barbecue, or often names barbie, is one of Australian traditions. We invite our relatives or friends to come to our house or they invite us to theirs and do barbecuing (usually outside the house, i.e. in the backyard). Hence, it is not surprise when you find many Australian houses have barbecue facilities, such as an outside oven with gas operated. Even in most of public parks, barbecue facilities are provided and free of charge. Anyone can use it and definitely should clean them after they finish. This is what makes me proud of Australian, they have high responsibility and respect others.

In addition, when someone invites you to a barbie, you cannot go with nothing like what we do in Indonesia; we normally just come and enjoy the food if we got a party invitation. Differently, if you’re invited to a barbie, this means that you have to Bring-Your-Own (BYO). BYO is a very common word anytime you’re invited to parties. “Please, BYO!” or “Bring your own plate, please!” At first, of course, I do not understand what does it mean. Should we really bring our own plates? Hmm, probably the host does not have so many. Maybe. That’s why we need to bring plates from home (*LOL). That was my thought at the first time.

That was totally wrong!!! 

BYO means we share some chops – it can be beef, lamb or chicken [FYI, Australia is famous for its meat. This country is the largest exporter of red meat over the world. Therefore, the price is cheaper than in Indonesia], any kind of sausages, breads, salads and beers drinks. You can also bring another food as an additional menu. If we gather with Indonesian community, for example, usually we also bring Indonesian foods such as nasi, mie goreng, sambal goreng kentang, ayam/tempe/tahu goreng, gulai ikan, kerupuk, bakso, de el el (like what we do when we have a picnic). In short, barbie time means we bring and share good foods, enjoy them together, and most importantly meet, greet and party with good people a.k.a friends in our leisure time. Lets enjoy Aussie barbie!