Urban Grilling

Photo credit: ThinkGeek

Last Friday my friend Leah graduated from Loyola, and she wanted to have a beach barbecue party in celebration. On Thursday, it was sunny, beautiful and in the upper 70's. However, Chicago weather being what it is, it dropped about 20 degrees on Friday and was excessively windy. Therefore, the barbecue ended up at my apartment.

I have a Weber charcoal kettle grill on my back porch that I use for grilling. Admittedly, it's not the safest of arrangements and our landlord would have a heart attack if he knew, but I've only had one close call and that was because I had an oven mitt hanging on the side of the grill (it combusted, and I really hope my mom doesn't read this post). I do tend to keep the fire extinguisher close at hand. It's the reality of urban grilling. You do it even though you probably shouldn't, and you hope you don't catch anything on fire. I have a back yard, and I could put the grill in it, but one of the neighbors would steal it or, more likely, blow it up.

As I was manning the grill on Friday night, I remarked on how I love to grill, and I love the charcoal flavor, but usually I'm cooking for two and it's just too much fuss to get the big kettle grill going for a small amount of food. I said how nice it would be nice to have a little bitty grill that I could use for that. So, what arrives in my inbox today? The ThinkGeek newsletter advertising the Grilliput Compact Grill. I have no idea how well it works, but it looks like a sturdier option than those cheapie camping grills that they sell at Walgreen's. Plus, it's made of titanium and it compacts down to a little cylinder!

The grill and accompanying firebowl are approximately $45 to order from ThinkGeek. I will probably wait to see if there are some positive reviews floating around before I buy one, but I am planning on picking up this R2D2 Action Figure for my dad for Father's Day, so maybe I'll order the grill along with it. If I do, I'll report back on the results!