Están locos estos Americanos

Este lunes 29 de Junio es "Memorial Day" en EEUU. Parece ser que muchos norteamericanos aprovechan Memorial Day para "inaugurar la temporada de barbacoas".

En muchas familias de Valencia, la paella es la única ocasión en la que el hombre cocina. En EEUU ocurre algo similar con las barbacoas: parece ser una actividad exclusivamente masculina. Como es de esperar en algo típicamente masculino, en seguida aparece el elemento competitivo, y la barbacoa se convierte en un símbolo de estatus como el coche:

As Memorial Day marks the official beginning of grilling season, many men will find themselves almost genetically drawn to throwing hunks of raw meat onto a fire and poking them with tongs. It's a pull that some will spend almost any amount of money to satisfy, said Pantelis A. Georgiadis, the owner of Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet, the grill manufacturer based in Michigan. "There is a market segment we call the 'man cook with fire' types," he said.

Parece ser que hay gente a la que no le importa gastarse $6500 en una barbacoa:

Last fall, Dave and Allison Petrullo of Commack, N.Y., installed a custom-built Cal Spas grill on their patio with an outdoor refrigerator. They spent more than $100,000 renovating their backyard with a new synthetic deck, masonry, a whirlpool and a pool waterfall, so $6,500 more for Mr. Petrullo to have a brick sanctuary with a Cal Spas grill as its central altar seemed like nothing. "I told him to just go for it," Ms. Petrullo said. "And get your dream barbecue."

Though they have actually cooked on the grill only three times since they installed it, it has been a hit with Mr. Petrullo's friends, who congregate around it at parties and give it a going-over like a pack of high school boys around a Corvette, Ms. Petrullo said. "They like to lift up the hood and play with the knobs," she said. "They open the doors underneath, and they open the fridge next to it to check it out."

¿Qué importa el hecho de haberla usado sólo 3 veces, si te conviertes en la envidia de tus amigos?

Además, $6500 no es tanto, comparado con los $35000 que cuesta la de la foto:

But the Queen Mary 2 of outdoor cooking is the $35,000 Talos Outdoor Cooking Suite sold by Frontgate, a luxury goods catalog retailer.