BBQ tips and cooking hacks from the men behind the wildly successful cooking channel
By Samantha Francis; Photos: Weber
Meet The MeatMen.
It must’ve been about a year back since I first encountered The MeatMen’s first video — salted egg yolk prawns. There were smooth panning shots, deft hand movements and close-ups of each ingredient set to a mood lifting tune; consider me impressed!
In a sea of cooking videos where Western cuisine is heavily represented, it was sheer delight seeing our local dishes take center stage. From hawker favourites like prawn paste chicken to trendy creations like salted egg burger, they’ve done it all.
Recently, they’ve collaborated with grill expert Weber, to showcase the diversity of cuisine that can be cooked on their home grills.
Here’s what we learnt from The MeatMen:
What are some of your favourite local dishes to cook on a grill? And why?
Local styled BBQ chicken wings, sambal stingray and ayam bakar. All these dishes have a nice smokey flavor when cooked over a grill.
Grilling the Weber Way — with the lid down, makes it easy for users to achieve a flavorful crust and juicy flesh, especially when it comes to dishes like BBQ wings and ayam bakar.
Do you have any tips on using a home grill?
One essential tip is to maintain a clean grill at all times. It is best is to clean and scrape off the burn bits on your cooking grates when it’s hot. A lot of people are doing it wrong by cleaning them after the grill has cooled.
Their essential BBQ tip? Maintain a clean grill at all times.
Do you find it hard to use a grill at home in urban Singapore – without a massive backyard?
For the charcoal grill, it’s harder due to the amount of smoke while starting the fire.
However, gas grills like the Weber Q are perfect for use in our urban city. It is small, portable, and produces a manageable amount of smoke.
How often do you host cookouts and what do you love about them?
Once every one or two months. It’s always great when you have family and friends come together to cook and eat. It’s a fun way to bond and catch up with one another too.
What inspired you guys to start this cooking channel? And why?
The idea started as a way for us to recreate and preserve local cooking. With Singapore becoming more developed, families tend to cook less at home.
These days, traditional recipes don’t get passed on as much as they did in the past. If we don’t learn some of these recipes, the next generation will probably never know how these flavors were created.
The Meat Men doesn’t use a host as they believe food should be the highlight of their videos.
What sets you guys apart from other cooking channels on YouTube and TV? And why?
Firstly, we feature a lot of local hawker and zi char recipes.
Secondly, our belief is that food is the highlight of our channel. Therefore, we don’t use a host so that the focus can be on our food.
How do you go about picking which recipes to feature/film?
Firstly, we consider the dishes which we want to eat! Next, our fans’ requests.
Could you share a couple of cooking hacks/tips with our readers? Since you guys are such pros!
Invest in a good non-stick wok pan as you’d be able to do plenty on it, from stir frying to deep fry and even stewing and braising.
Always get your pan or wok hot enough before adding any ingredients. This prevents them from sticking to the pan when cooking.
Most importantly taste as you cook, and adjust the amount of seasoning to your preference!
What are some challenges you’ve met, in this Meatmen journey?
When we started the journey, we did it simply as a hobby. However, as our videos began to go viral, the demand for content meant that we had to allocate more time to produce them!
Could each of you share what’s your favourite restaurant/hawker stall etc, in SG? And tell us why?
There are too many hawker stalls to mention! Foong Kee has some awesome Sio Bak, Tian Tian has consistently good Hainanese Chicken Rice. We can’t stress enough that Singapore is a foodie’s paradise!
What can fans expect from The Meatmen in the future?
We are expanding our repertoire of content and developing more recipes — not just local food but also more Asian dishes. Oh yes, a few recipe books are in the works as well!
Watch The MeatMen here.
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