Service ✪✪
Ambience ✪✪✪✪
82 Pilgrim Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 6JN
0191 447 7720
www.bierrex.gustouk.com
What is it about the barbecue that appeals so much to the male psyche?
There has to be more to it than the primal draw of the flame and the hunger-inspiring aroma of rendered animal fat on hot coals.
There’s something almost masonic about the secret world of rubs, brines and marinades. There are fierce competitions based around the cuisine of the barbie, with grown men fighting for bragging rights over the best pulled pork. I guess that’s why it’s colloquially known as “dude food”.
And yet, even as someone who is quite openly male, I’ve never quite “got it” when eating at smokehouses, at least on this side of the Atlantic. Despite all the hushed talk of meat provenance and special woods, and the number of days that a piece of cow has spent over low, slow heat, I’ve always thought that the results were, at best, not so much better than what I could achieve myself with a decent marinade and a few bits of charcoal in my Weber. Or at least that was the case until our recent meal at Bierrex.
