BBQ'ed Steaks with Salads

The first day of summer brings an invitation for a bbq at the home of Bern, the chef at Park Snacks and former chef at the long gone but still missed Piggies. The steaks and burgers are provided by Richard who has just gleefully purchased an entire cow that was divvied three ways. Bern grills the steaks just as they are, in fact a guest who inquires about HP Sauce receives a glare that silences him for the rest of the evening and possibly until fall, and they are tender and delicious. Bern does sprinkle his with salt, insisting it needs it for tenderizing but that may just be a dig at Richard who is regaling all with stories of the cow and the resulting value (approximately $2.50 a pound for over 500 pounds of meat), but everyone else is quite content and most have seconds. The eating experience is so immersive than even when Richard's grandson arrives and non-discreetly vomits from car sickness at the head of the table, there is nary a pause in the chewing. The offending puddle is washed away with a couple of buckets of water from the fish pond and the child is given a burger.

Richard also provides salads: a three bean salad that also includes pearl onions and olives; a fruit salad with a dominant flavour of mango; and a variety of greens topped with mushrooms, avocado, sliced tomato and cucumbers, and fresh plump blackberries.

More than sated the guests settle in for cocktails and conversation while the sun sets and heat lightning decorates the sky. It is going to be a good summer.