Pirrama Park Public BBQ

One of the things I had wanted to try since planning the Australia trip was a Public BBQ.
Free communal BBQ facilities are set up throughout the parks for anyone to use.

We came prepared with foil trays, scissors, and tongs.
If you don't have them, you can buy them at a nearby supermarket.

We first headed to a nearby large supermarket to buy ingredients and water for the BBQ.
There were many types of meat, so we carefully picked what seemed like a good amount at a reasonable price.

We initially debated between lamb and beef, but the lamb portions were either too much or too little, so we settled on beef.
There were many cuts of beef to choose from, so we selected carefully.

We also picked up button mushrooms to have as a garnish with the beef.
They were enormous.
We bought salt too, but ended up not using it.

When we arrived at the Public BBQ area, no one else was there, so we had the whole thing to ourselves.
Press the button on the grill to start it up, and once the indicator turns green, it's ready to use.

We placed the beef, the butter that came with it, and the mushrooms onto the foil tray and started grilling.
The heat turned out to be weaker than expected, and the foil tray was too thick, so the meat ended up steaming rather than grilling.

We had also brought along instant noodles bought cheap in Melbourne and tried heating water for them on the grill,
but the temperature barely rose enough to produce steam, let alone bring it to a boil.
We had no choice but to make do with steamed beef and lukewarm water for dinner.

Even so, the meat itself was good quality, and it was surprisingly tender and delicious.
The mushrooms grilled alongside were especially tasty — cooked with butter, they were genuinely delicious.
If you're planning to grill here, mushrooms are a must-bring.

The instant noodles hadn't softened since there was no boiling water,
so we improvised by pouring them into a foil tray and heating them on the grill again.
In the end, the noodles were a failure due to the water temperature issue, but we ate every last bite because we were craving something spicy.

There was a bathroom nearby, so we could quickly rinse off the scissors and tongs we used.

If you plan to grill meat, using thin foil trays or laying down cooking foil directly will work much better than thick foil trays.