Crave

Shiny and ready to grill.

(Credit: Blue Ember)

Sometimes it's OK to show off. Certainly everybody does from time to time. I may not be qualified to give reasoned speculation as to why we do this, but I certainly understand that it goes better with food. The Blue Ember iQue combines favorite grill features with an integrated computer for precision control and fun bragging points.

A touch-control onboard computer monitors time and temperature during the cooking process for easy grilling. Select your type of meat and desired level of doneness and the grill handles the rest. In tandem with the integrated temperature probe, the computer maintains the heat level and then automatically lowers it when food reaches the desired doneness. A sonar-based system keeps track of propane usage and displays the results in terms of remaining time.

The iQue can also operate without computer control. Other features are enough to satisfy any grill aficionado. An infrared rotisserie burner, a built-in smoker box, and a side burner all add to the versatility this grill can provide. It even comes with an ice bucket and a bottle opener.

If you're going to show off, you might as well make it tasty. Luckily, with the iQue and its 650 square inches of cooking surface, everybody gets to share in the appreciation of your shiny new grill. Appeasing the party with food definitely makes this one time when it's OK to brag.

(Via Appliancist)

Grilling can be a messy thing. We all know that. Just using charcoal and lighter fluid is sloppy enough, but when you consider the myriad of sauces, glazes, and marinades, it really becomes clear just how much of an ordeal it can be. Many opt for propane as a means to cook, thereby limiting at least some of the standard requisite mess.

(Credit: Hammacher Schlemmer)

Personally, for me, it is almost always worth it to suffer through a little mess for delicious grilled meats and vegetables. Messy or not, a good barbecue provides a unique way of cooking that's ingrained in all of our DNA.

However, no longer are charcoal or propane the only games in town. For those who want the easiest possible grilling experience (short of take out), there is the Intelligent Grill from Hammacher Schlemmer.

The grill is programmable and cooks food to your specifics. Just enter your cut of meat, thickness, and desired level of doneness via the keypad and LED screen. All of this means one very important factor: yes, it is an electric grill.

The grill uses two levels of heating elements to approximate the grilling experience. One produces direct heat, capable of searing grill marks, with the other designed to produce radiant heat. The 216-square-inch cooking surface, along with the stainless steel construction and storage shelves, certainly make it look like a grill, but something inside of me still yearns for flame-scorched food--no matter how messy it can be.

Vegetarians and animal lovers might want shield their eyes.

Produced by Traeger Pellet Grills, the Lil' Pig and Longhorn Steer are here to remind grill masters that what they are cooking was once in cute farm animal form. And yet, who can resist a novelty grill that boasts digital thermostat control, EZ-drain grease system, and 418 square inches of cooking space?

Yet cooks who aren't thrown by the campy eyelash-clad, smiling-animal grills, may be deterred by the price tag. Most wood pellet grills are expensive (ranging from $600 to $2,500) and the cow and the pig grills will cost $1,700, including shipping.

The grills could also make for a pretty lawn ornament, but the real upgrade would be if they could moo or oink when the meat's done.

(Via Uncrate)

(Credit: Traeger Pellet Grills)

(Credit: Traeger Pellet Grills)

When summer rolls around, it's time to gas up the boat, blow up the inner tubes, and head for the lake. In the old days if you wanted to combine your nautical adventures with your culinary ones, you were forced to lug your hibachi onto your boat and hope that you didn't hit a rough wake sending burning coals everywhere. Weekend warriors around the world longed for someone to step up to the plate and combine their two loves: boats and cooking raw meat.

Behold, the BBQ Donut.

(Credit: Art_think Agency LTD)

Someone has finally come through for all of us and invented the BBQ Donut, which allows you to spend a day on the lake enjoying a delicious meal while never getting out of your boat. Developed by the German company Art_think Agency, the BBQ Donut features a circular propane grill positioned in the middle of the boat along with a foldable sunshade to keep you from being cooked yourself after a hearty meal.

While you won't be able to water ski, the Donut does feature an onboard electric motor that will last at full speed for up to four hours. And when you're ready to sleep off your meal, the grill and the seats can be removed and replaced with the Chill Out platform that inflates into an air mattress. Then when it's time to head home, the Donut even comes with a trailer for easy transport back to your humble abode where it will wait patiently for the next time you're feeling the urge to grill on the open seas.

While it's currently only available in Europe, there's an anxious group of spring breakers chomping at the bit to get their hands on this. Suddenly, those German classes I failed in high school are coming back to haunt me.

(Credit: Oregon Scientific)

It was only afew days ago that we hought we'd found the ultimate barbecue tool with the "Redi-Chek Remote Thermometer," which monitors your culinary feats wirelessly from up to 100 feet away while you watch TV. How wrong we were.

Oregon Scientific has weighed in with a wireless version of its own that monitors your steaks from a distance up to 330 feet so you can even see the game on the neighbor's new plasma. But here's the real kicker: It talks to you. The "Grill Right" thermometer can "verbally alert you" in five languages when the meat is cooked to specification.

Not only that, but for the barbecue-challenged among us, the handheld unit's LCD screen will display a picture of the type of animal that's been dispatched for the grill, along with a wealth of other information. As they say on generic infomercials (redundant?), this is one gadget that can suit any lifestyle, whether you're using a George Foreman iGrill or a 24-carat gold-plated BeefEater.

(Credit: Gizmag)

Depending on how you feel about barbecues, this is either an unmitigated disaster or the best thing since the "George Foreman iGrill." We're torn.

On one hand, it's a monster 'cue with quartz ignition, a vaporizer grid, six burners--not including one to heat a wok--and a roasting hood with a viewing window (gasp). On the other, according to Gizmag, all parts of BeefEater's "Signature Series 6 Burner SL4000" are plated in 24-carat gold. All of them, that is, except for the grilling surfaces. (Thank goodness level heads prevailed, at least in this regard.)

And the reason for creating this $12,500 gold grilling godzilla? "It's for the man who has everything and wants more," BeefEater says. Even we can't argue with that.

(Credit: The Kitchen Clique)

After some of our last few posts, it occurs to us that we may have left the impression that we're anti-social couch potatoes here at Crave. Not so. We enjoy entertaining company as much as anyone--so long as it's under our conditions.

This summer, for example, we'll be the first in our neighborhood to throw a barbecue, and we're even willing to do the cooking. We just don't want to have to expend any energy doing it, which is precisely why we need the "Redi-Chek Remote Thermometer."

This gadget can be programmed to work according to the type of meat on the grill and the desired cooking level, which can be monitored wirelessly and comfortably up to 100 feet away, according to ProductDose. (The fact that our TV is 99 feet from the patio is pure coincidence; it happens to be closest spot to the bar.) We can't wait to try it out with a George Foreman iGrill.

(Credit: T3)

If you can't afford Manny Ramirez's grill (or even his neighbor's), fear not: Stainless steel and BTU levels aren't everything. For one thing, we're willing to bet that it doesn't play music.

That's right, you too can be the owner of what T3 calls "the world's first MP3 blasting barbecue." B&Q's "Memphis Barbecue" hides a speaker behind a retro-designed front panel that sports a chrome emblem worthy of the grille on a '50s hot rod (a grille grill?). In the back is an adapter that connects to the music player of your choice.

It may not be the "Ultimate Outdoor Theater," but it sure beats the "Balcony Barbecue." Just be sure to keep the cable clear of the burners, or you'll never be able to play patio DJ.

(Credit: ProductDose)

Yup, just in time for summer. It's all of 12 degrees Fahrenheit here in Manhattan, which is a big improvement over the 8-degree temperatures this morning, but still not warm enough to be thinking about outdoor barbecues. Nevertheless, this contraption on ProductDose is worth a nod, in my opinion: it's a balcony barbecue that allows you to fix a mini charcoal grill onto the edge of a balcony and use it to prepare burgers, fish, steaks, shish kebabs, or what-have-you. It looks as though it was somewhat inspired by flower boxes: there's a lower space to hold charcoal, and then an upper grill that can fit a handful of edible goodies. It's billed as a great space-saver for apartment dwellers. Mmm, grilled zucchini.

The whole concept of such a gadget, however, hinges on the assumption that people who live in apartments actually have balconies. (For example, I don't.) So, I guess you could substitute the fire escape instead, but that might be kind of illegal...