Tribal People Try BBQ

American barbecue is meat cooked slowly over wood smoke for hours — brisket, ribs, pulled pork — with a sweet, tangy sauce. It is a different thing from grilling, and from the Pakistani 'BBQ' of quick tikka and kebabs over coal.

Smoke flavour is familiar; sweetness on meat is not. A sticky, sugary sauce on ribs is the part that divides the table. Slow-cooked brisket, on the other hand, is close enough to nihari texture to feel like home.

Tikka on a coal angeethi is the village barbecue, and it is spicy, not sweet. Every BBQ video turns into a debate about sugar on meat.