Mmm BBQ!

Yesterday I got an email saying I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and submit the bills to my insurance from when I was sick. Sure that's stupid since they said they would cover everything, but the real kick in the teeth was the chain of emails I was privied to with this request. Basically it was a conversation between two people regarding who should pay and insulting me at the same time. Lovely... I don't understand how management doesn't realize that treating your employees with respect will make them the most effective. Shortly thereafter I also got an email from the German upper management about the difference between German and Chinese culture. Know what one of the differences is? Exactly... treat everyone with respect. Everyone wonders why the Chinese are taking over.

Unfortunately I let it get to me and got all pissed off. But it was ok since we had been planning a BBQ at Joerg's house. Joerg's car wouldn't start this morning so he took the day off to fix it and prep for the BBQ. He's a great guy that has been very helpful. He even loaned me Married with Children, which is called, 'One happy family,' in German. However his grill is so interesting I had to take a picture of it.

For the first course pictured below we had 'German' burgers. I put it in quotes because Joerg spent some time in the states where he learned a bit about grilling burgers making them Germarican burgers. After finishing up the burgers which we topped with homemade 'fuego' sauce mmm... we threw some more coal on the grill along with some marinated pork fillets. I did learn an important new lesson regarding marinades. Apparently if you place your meat in a marinade, do it in a plastic bag. Empty all the air and then freeze it. That's right... in freezing it everything contracts and you get much better flavor out of your marinade. We ate the delicious pork with some Turkish bread and a garlic mayonnaise... I still refuse to eat Freedom Fries with mayonnaise!

30 minutes later it was time for the final course. I decided to make the second round of burgers since I didn't get a chance to help with the first round and Joerg even made a comment about me being the burgermeister... haha... I wanted to use the leftover fuego sauce inside the meat, but Joerg insisted it would ruin the hamburger since it would burn and have no flavor. I finally convinced him I knew what I was doing and got some BBQ sauce in there, made some patties with additional seasoning, and got them on the grill. The only complaint was that the burgers were too thick, but perfectly cooked and tasty, with a nice hint of BBQ sauce. So I got to teach ze German's a little bit about the proper preparation of an American burger. All in all it was an excellent night of good food, good company, and good tunes. We rocked out to a generous mix of AC/DC, GNR, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, some pop, some country, and some German music.

I got a good country CD for you Ryan. It's a band from the Netherlands that covers some random classics, but does it with a country beat. Look up: 'Boss Hoss'