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What to Cook on the Morning Grill: The Morning-After Question of an Overnight BBQ
An overnight BBQ has a privilege no day trip can offer: the next morning, the grill is still in the garden. When the evening feast ends, there is no need to pack the gear away. So why not cook breakfast outdoors as well?
In the morning, the grill becomes a different tool from the one it was at night. If night is a contest of firepower, morning is best served by little more than residual heat. Our recommendations: thick-cut bacon and fried eggs, and hot sandwiches on the grate. Grilled rice balls (yaki-onigiri) made from last night’s leftover rice need nothing but a brush of soy sauce before they go on the grate, and a good smell rises all over the garden. For something sweet, lightly sear rings of pineapple or peach, and morning fruit becomes another thing entirely. And the star is coffee. Boil water and brew a cup in the open air, and the same beans taste different than they do indoors.
There is only one trick: give the grate a light cleaning at the end of the evening. The five minutes spent gathering the coals with tongs and scraping the char off the grate buy you the next morning’s freedom. It also pays to start breakfast early, counting backward from checkout time. A table in the morning light becomes a highlight of the trip all by itself.
A Morning Overlooking the Ariake Sea: VIGAN Amakusa
A whole-house rental villa standing on a cape in Oyano, Kamiamakusa. It looks out over the Ariake Sea and its islands, with an open-air bath and sauna on the veranda and a terrace BBQ to enjoy. Sleeps up to 5. In the morning, this is water that changes its expression with the great tides of the Ariake Sea. Cook breakfast on the terrace while watching the water slowly draw back, and the morning feels exactly like an island journey in Kyushu.
The Gas Grill, Morning’s Best Ally: AMAO VILLA Atami
A hideaway whole-house rental resting on the slopes of Izusan. It offers an ocean-view balcony looking out to Oshima Island and a gas BBQ, and you can stay with your dog. A gas grill that needs no charcoal is a natural match for the morning. Ten minutes after waking, the balcony with its Oshima view becomes your breakfast table. Come back from the dog’s morning walk and sit straight down to breakfast.
A Forest Morning and a Suite with a Grill: Chichibu Bettei Komura
A private resort of just 4 suites standing quietly in the forests of Chichibu. Every suite comes with a pool, sauna, semi-open-air bath, BBQ and free bar, and there is also a dog-friendly suite with its own dog run. On forest mornings the air is moist, and the grill’s smoke rises straight up. After breakfast to the sound of birds, will it be a morning bath or the pool? A place with no shortage of morning choices.
The Morning-After Question Becomes a Feast
The morning after an overnight BBQ tends to be talked about as a problem: the fatigue of the night before and the cleanup still waiting. But shift your point of view, and it is also a rare chance to greet the morning with the tools and the fire already in place. For your next overnight BBQ, add the morning menu to the shopping list along with the evening one.
Stays in this article
AmakusaKumamoto
貸別荘 ヴィガン・オーシャンヴィラ
An orange two-storey villa on a cape in Kamiamakusa, its Provence-styled rooms looking over the Ariake Sea, with a balcony open-air bath, a fire pit and a BBQ terrace.
Izu & AtamiShizuoka
AMAO VILLA 熱海
A whole-house villa at Izusan in Atami. Its wood-and-tile private bath looks onto a courtyard built from Izu driftwood, and the cantilevered terrace deliberately has no railing. Three bedrooms, eleven guests, dogs welcome.
3 bd
ChichibuSaitama
秩父別邸 木叢 -komura-
A four-suite private forest resort in Chichibu, Saitama, each suite with pool, sauna, semi-open-air bath and BBQ; dog-run suites available. Sleeps up to 7.