Hi everyone,
Well, I just ordered a 23' Ultimate. I have been reading this forum and speaking to Dennis which pretty much had me hooked. Thanks everyone for the useful information on this forum. Dennis is a gentleman and has been great to work with. Also Aussie Ora helped out with his import experience which seemed pretty easy and this assisted with the decision making.
A bit about me and my grilling experience… I am from Perth, Western Australia and have 3 small kids with my beautiful wife. We got a Weber Kettle as a wedding gift back in 2006. Although, I have an awesome gas BBQ, I normally would use the Weber if I had people around for dinner. We purchased my brother in law a BBQ cooking class from Urban Griller in Perth for his 40th - it's basically a day of eating BBQ food and drinking.... I am going to attend as well so I decided to look into smokers in preparation for the day of cooking. Anyway after a lot of research I came across these Kamado style cookers. We are pretty limited in Australia and I found the KJ at a local BBQ retailer. I also looked at BGE. I stumbled on a few forums about the KK and the need for personal loans to buy one I also viewed some youtube videos. These things are beautiful and reminded me of the Gaudi art pieces in Spain. I was really drawn to overwhelming positive feedback on the quality of the KK and never came across a bad comment about the KK. I am a true believer in paying for quality as in the long run it just works out better. More research on the KK website, the forum and a chat to Dennis pretty wrapped up the decision for me.
So what did I order… Initially, I was looking at the 19 or 22 but ended up with the 23 Ultimate. I have gone for the pebble tile. A lot of deliberation took place on accessories. I ended up with the split basket, baking stone, 8’ Rotisserie and sunbrella. Dennis recommended the split basket and baking stone for pizza. Actually, after my initial conversation with Dennis I was not going to get the rotisserie but the forum comments have swayed me this way. I have deliberated on the teak sides... I actually like the clean look without the sides but I would find them very very useful. After discussion with friends, I have decided to make a movable side table with storage from some Jarrah timber slabs that I have spare. Jarrah is a beautiful hardwood timber found in the south west of Western Australia. I have attached some picture of an outdoor table setting I made last month with jarrah timber.
Payment is sent and now it’s the waiting game…
So what I am thinking about…
Well I have been researching the digital controllers. I liked the looks of the BBQ Rocks or BBQ Guru one. Reading through all the forums I am swayed to just wait until I have the KK and see how I go. I live pretty close to the beach and it does get quite windy where I am at so I am thinking these digital controllers would be better for maintaining temps for an amateur doing low and slows. Also, I am in the IT industry and would just get a kick out of the gadget… Any feedback here would be welcome.
The burn in and first cook have also been on my mind but I still have a long time before I get to that. Having never really used these types of grills or a smoker before, I will be reading more threads on cooking with the KK.
Oh and a name… as I see that’s a near mandatory requirement to be part of the KK family.
Sorry for the long post. I enjoyed reading through the member posts so thought I would just introduce myself as well.
Pictures of my jarrah outdoor setting. Not great quality as these are phone pictures.