This is my mom holding my brand new son. The picture’s almost two years old but it’s one of my faves. Why am I posting a pic of my mother you ask? With Mother’s Day coming up, we are devoting all of May to moms on foodnetwork.ca blog and HGTV.ca blog . My mom is a fantastic cook. I know everyone says that about their mom, but it happens to be true in my case (insert serious voice). How many moms have had their recipe printed in Lucy Waverman ’s column in The Globe and Mail ? I rest my case. It was for her kimchi dumplings in case you were wondering. All bragging aside, the dish that screams mom for me is kalbi , Korean short ribs marinated in onion ginger water, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, sesame oil. The ribs are marinated overnight and barbecued to a slightly charred perfection. Because of the way they are cut (“ flanken ” which refers to the strip of beef cut across the bone), it’s easy to eat the gristle around the bone. And if you want to be an honorary Korean, you will eat the gristle because it’s delicious and it's how we eat it. I fed my mom’s kalbi to a few of my friends this past weekend and I’m not exaggerating when I tell you the sheer tastiness of them almost killed two of them. They are that good. I tried to finagle the recipe out of my mom but as with most non-Western cultures, my Korean mom does NOT believe in measurements (see my best guesstimated recipe below). My son, I’m happy to report, is my mom’s no.2 kalbi fan after yours truly of course. How about you? Is there a dish that screams mom for you? Do you have the recipe ? Please post them below and let’s celebrate our most loyal fans – our mothers! ---------------------------------------------- CJ Mom’s Kalbi Ingredients: 4 pounds of kalbi * kalbi is cut flanken style across three ribs, lengthwise across the bone 1 c. of onion and ginger water (boil water with two onions cut in half with a nob of ginger) ½ c. soy sauce ¼ c. white sugar 4 tablespoons of sesame oil 10 cloves of garlic toasted sesame seeds (optional) (In the words of my mother, if it doesn't tastes right, add a bit more of any of the above) Directions: Once the onion ginger water has cooled, mix all the ingredients together, pour over the ribs, marinate overnight and barbecue. Serves 6. Discuss formerly known as Question of the Week appears Mondays. Related: HGTV.ca Question of the Week: My Mom Gets A+ For Style, And Yours...

It used to be a black or white issue: gas was easier, arguably safer, and quicker, while charcoal is tastier, more “authentic” and less expensive, but decidedly more time-consuming. Well for the past several years a third choice has thrown barbecue enthusiasts a curve ball: Infrared . Heard of it? Back in 2005 CanadianBusiness.com cited experts who predicted that “…ten years down the line, 60% of all barbecues will be exclusively infrared.” But four years later, I still don’t know a single person who has one, save for one friend who has a supped gas grill with an additional infrared burner. Pictured: TEC Patio II Pedestal Infrared BBQ The concept is based on radiant heat as opposed to convection heat (hot air moving around the food to cook it.) Infrared barbecues have ceramic burners that are heated by gas, through thousands of microscopic flame ports. The ceramic burners absorb the heat, which in turn gets emitted as infrared energy at temperatures approximately three times hotter than a regular gas or charcoal grill. Your steak cooks in half the time. That’s right, if you’ve not experienced it first had, the whole process from turning the barbecue on, to serving your meat, takes approximately 15 minutes. That’s about the time it takes my husband to fight through the flora and fauna that’s chocking our backyard screen door, to get to our gas BBQ which broke, and is now filled with charcoal. People apparently swear by infrared, cautioning only that if you’re not used to its futuristic powers, you may end up burning your food. Oh, and they’ll run you upwards of $1,000. I’ll tell you one thing, my chef friends sure don’t like it. Would you try it? Or are you a die-hard gas and/or charcoal kind of carnivore? Take a Poll and Leave your Comments Below! What Type of Grill do You Prefer? ( trends ) Question of the Week appears Mondays on Food For Thought Related: Check out more grilling info on our Summer Site

I finally got around to buying a BBQ this week. After pondering the whole charcoal vs. gas debate, I decided to go with the latter because, well, I’m lazy. Charcoal seemed too labour intensive, even if you use one of those handy dandy chimney starters . Although I’d like to think that I’d be barbecuing fancy ribs for all my friends, having marinated them in a special wet rub for two days, most often than not, I’ll be flipping burgers for two. Sure enough the first meal we barbecued was hamburgers. And yes, they were the frozen kind that comes from a box. Hey, we were tired having put the BBQ together, but man did they ever taste good. The next day, I made up for my pre-packaged meal by grilling catfish and vegetable kebabs . Delish! If you ever want to get your kids to eat more veggies, just throw them on the BBQ. But it did get me thinking about the whole gas vs. charcoal debate. I’ve always used gas BBQs and wondered if I was missing out. I know that charcoal users swear by them, saying food tastes hundred times better. As an aside, I read about a study where people were presented with hamburgers and steaks cooked on gas and charcoal. No one could tell the difference between the charcoal or gas when it came to the burgers, but they could tell the difference when it came to the steaks. The charcoal grilled steak had more distinct smoke flavour. So dear readers, can you shed some light on the gas or charcoal BBQ debate? What is your preference and why? Don't forget to check out our Get Grilling microsite for all your BBQ needs.