BBQ in the Dark- Belize Adventure

From St. Louis, to Memphis to Chapel Hill, you can't count the number of BBQ joints who claim they have the best BBQ. But in my experience, you really have to travel to where the Southern Cross shines to experience the best BBQ ever.

It was our first time to Belize. My husband and I agreed, if we stayed at this swanky seaside hotel, we'd have to balance our bugdet by eating at small local eateries. While the rest of the hotel guest dined by candlelight at the hotel's pricey oceanfront restuaurant, we opted to eat at only the local cafes. Our local fishing guide for that day recommended this place called Jabaru. (The Jabaru stork is the official bird of Belize, or so we were told.) So after a long day of fishing, we were staaaarving. Always looking for a way to save a coin, we peddled over there with tummies grumbling on the bikes owned by the resort.

We promptly found our Jabaru...a glorified open air "lean-to" with tin roof and picnic tables for communal dining. We were so excited. This was our kind of joint! To the left, there was a massive black steel drum grill, obviously where their famous BBQ was prepared. In front of us was a bar packed with locals perched on bar stools swigging Belikens, the local Belize beer. We found our utopia.

After our thirty second assessment, we placed our order for their famous chicken and a round of Beliken's and local rum drinks to get things started. Just minutes after we ordered, we see the heavy set chef lumber over to the massive drum to light the charcoal. Hmmm. This is going to be more fresh than we thought. Even the charcoal is lit to order. Another half hour later (no joke) they start to put the chicken on the grill. So in our deliriously famished minds, we thought that worst case scenario, the chicken would hit our plates in forty minutes or so. Nope. TWO hours later, the chicken was removed from the grill and brought to our table for our consumption.

I guess we would have been really pissed off if we were back in the States, but the combination of Belikens and the promise of fantastic BBQ staved off our grumpies! Besides, we've never seen a chef tend to BBQ like it was their first born child. Every ten minutes, the chicken was turned, re-arranged and tenderly basted.

At first bite, we realized why waiting for this BBQ chicken for three and a half hours was well worth it. It was the most tender chicken sauced with a scant of tangy-sweet BBQ sauce. It had such amazing balance and flavor, too much of it would have overshadowed the moist, sweet chicken that was probably just caught that afternoon in their back yard (lots of chickens running around that town!).

So bellies full, smiles planted on our faces from realizing we just ate the best BBQ of our lives, we realized the consequences of our three hour chicken...it was completely dark. Now, we are in Belize, not New York. There are no street lights, cars or any other source beside the stars to guide us back to the resort. So like the idiots we are, we decided to trust our navigation to the shimmer of the moon.

Unfortunately, there was not even a thin sliver of a moon on this warm Belize night, so once we got on our dirt road to head back on our bikes, we realized the only thing guiding us were the five second flashes of lightning. A lightening bolt would flash, and we would have only seconds to learn whether we were heading towards the mangroves or to the swamp on our left. Our vision was blacked out otherwise. And I mean black. As I could feel my pulse in my throat and a possible lizard-skinned something jumping on my calf, we both realized the dear price we had paid for the best BBQ of our lives.

So in retrospect, I'm not sure if our opinion was glorified by the memory of our elevated endorphins from the harrowing bike ride or maybe our post meal swing in a hammock by the ocean where we stared at the Southern Cross with bellies stuffed with chicken. Well anyway, we recommend a trip to the Jabaru BBQ Grill for yourself if you are ever in Southeastern Belize..and by the way, spend the $20 on the cab driver if your going at night!

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