Getting settled in a new country invariably involves some unexpected twists and turns.

During our first winter in Canada, one of these “getting settled” mishaps involved a suckling pig, an outdoor rotisserie, and a blizzard.

So this week, when सीबीसी एक रेडियो in Vancouver ran a Father’s Day story contest called “Dad at the Barbie,” looking for tales of barbecue good and bad, I immediately flashed back on that ill-timed winter pork fest.

Here’s what happened:

The New Year’s Pig

By Carolyn B. हेल्लर

My husband Alan had always wanted to roast a whole suckling pig.

It was our first New Year’s Eve in Vancouver. हम सिर्फ बोस्टन से ले जाया गया था, where snow drifts burying the backyards made a midwinter barbecue an impossible dream. But here in the temperate rain forest, winters would be warm, सही? With a group of friends coming for the holidays, Alan decided it was the perfect time to indulge his pig roast fantasy.

सप्ताह बड़ी घटना से पहले, Alan began scouting out supplies. At a butcher shop on Granville Island, वह सुअर का आदेश दिया. He rented a massive outdoor rotisserie. वह सारे शहर में चलाई, looking for charcoal – though the difficulty of finding it should have been a clue that Vancouverites do not routinely barbecue in December.

On the morning of December 31st, we awoke to the beginnings of a full-on blizzard.

The delivery man, who hauled the rented rotisserie out of his truck and up our snow-slicked walk, पूछा, "क्या आप यकीन है कि क्या आप वास्तव में चाहते हैं कि यह बात?"हमारे बच्चों को उनके पिता को उनकी आँखों लुढ़का, who had clearly lost his mind.

Alan started marinating the pig, जो अब हमारे रसोई घर की मेज पर बाहर splayed. By late afternoon, when the time came to fire up the backyard barbecue, several inches of snow had accumulated. And it was still coming down.

Yet Alan wasn’t going to let a few snowflakes put a damper on his pork extravaganza. वह अपने जूते और parka पर खींच लिया, grabbed a cold beer in his ski-gloved hand, करने के लिए और काम करने के लिए सेट, feeding the fire and basting the slowly spinning pig. It was a laborious process, के बाद से बर्फ से बाहर कोयले डाल रखा. अंत में, he moved the grill under the eaves of the house to shelter it from the storm.

That’s when our neighbour came pounding on our front door, चिल्ला अपने यार्ड में "! There’s a fire!"

“Um, हम जानते हैं, धन्यवाद,” I replied. “It’s just my husband. He’s barbecuing.”

It was nearly midnight when we finally sat down to eat. Alan’s fingers were white with cold. But that barbecued suckling pig, marinated with snow and with optimism for our new Vancouver life, था स्वादिष्ट.

The prize for the winning story? A copy of the cookbook Barbeque राज डिलक्स, a bottle of प्राकृतिक चैंपियंस BBQ सॉस, and a personal visit with Canadian barbecue guru Rockin’ Ronnie Shewchuk.

And I won!

Happy Father’s Day!

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