Barbecue ( Tandoor) at Tei Mei Tuk Reservoir

For the long weekend of Easter,we decided to go on barbecuing. We chose to go to Tai Mei Tuk, which is a place close to the Plover Cove Reservoir in Tai Po District, New Territories, Hong Kong. It is a very popular place in Hong Kong for barbecues and cycling.

The group set out to shop the groceries, BBQ accessories (Grill plates, bamboo skewers, forks, brushes, tongs, igniter, charcoal, gloves) and drinks for the next day.

We were a bunch of people with some preferring only veggies. Yes Barbecuing for veggies is a bit challenging and tricky!!! The challenge is vegetables if not grilled on perfect heat, are charred easily.

Barbecuing requires prior marination of chopped vegetables and Chicken at least 6-8 hours before grilling (This is typical Indian taste). So we had gathered at my place to prepare the marination (Amongst the group, Sarang & I claimed to have better competency in preparing the marination for BBQ). We marinated chopped Capsicum, Potatoes, Mushroom, Cauliflower and Paneer for veggies and Chicken for non-veggies in the mixture of yogurt and tandoori chicken masala. (I’ll publish the recipe for marination some time later!!!).

Chalo Chale Tei Mei Tuk Reservoir

Tei Mei Tuk barbecue area is in Plover Cove Country Park. It is located between picturesque back ground of Pat Sin Leng (Nine mountain peaks) Country park and sea on three sides. The landscape view is simply fascinating and leaves you mesmerized.

We left early from Whampoa garden at around 9:30 am to reserve the free barbecue pits. To visit Plover Cove Country Park, Tai Po is the most convenient set off point. To reach Tai Po market, we took East Rail Line MTR from Hung Hom. Further we caught bus no. 75k to reach Tai Mei Tuk.After the hunt of around 15-20 minutes, we found free barbecue pit with two pits side by side. It’s advisable to reach the place by 9:30 am, so as to get the pits easily. It was the perfect sunny day for Barbecuing. Though it was sunny the temperature was hovering around 25 C and a flow of cool breeze made us fell fresher.

Tandoor side - BBQ pit mein sulagte hain charcoal

As soon as our rest of the troop arrived, we set to lighten the Tandoor/ barbecue. We were carrying few bags of flammable charcoal/ match light charcoal. The good aspect about using this charcoal is it ignites easily with less effort. Though it does not burn with big flames, but the heat is sufficient for the grill effect of veggies and chicken.

We threaded the marinated Paneer, onion, capsicum, carrots, potatoes and cauliflower pieces onto bamboo skewers in a

combination of our choice. Wow the vegetables tasted yummy before grilling as well!! This time our trick ( actually credit goes to Trupti for suggestion) of soaking the bamboo skewers in water worked to avoid the breaking and burning of them.

In the adjacent pit, we put on grilled pieces of chicken and sausages. As all the vegetables and chicken were steamed earlier, we were just th

e heating things up and adding some nice grill color. Simultaneously we were brushing the Chicken wedges and kebabs with butter as well to avoid charring of them. We had some corn too as an accompaniment.

We had prepared famous Marathi “Thecha’’ (Chatni prepared by grinding hot red chilies, garlic, lime juice and tempered with of jira and mus

tard) for dipping the grilled vegetables and Chicken.The grilled

veggie kebabs and Chicken tasted amazing and were mouth watering. All the flavors of garlic, ginger, Tandoori Masala and tanginess of yogurt had blended well and soaked deep inside each food particle.

And as the sun moved to west, we winded ourselves to return to Whampoa Garden with bloated stomachs and sweet memories.