A tiny change for the better The huge outdoor barbecues with all the whistles and bells are losing their lustre, in favour of compact tabletop barbecues. Anna King Shahab takes a look at the more intimate dining trend.

Decluttering. Downsizing. The current zeitgeist is driven by KonMari converts, minimalist missionaries emptying their closets and folding their T-shirts into cute bundles to give away.

It’s not only indoors that we tend to hoard possessions. The garden shed can be just as indicative of the materialistic tendencies we’re now trying to shake – if not more so.

Barbecues have grown bigger and bigger, to the point where they could cook a whole lamb on a spit while simultaneously sizzling sausages and perfecting pizza.

But a growing number of keen cooks are realising that hi-tech, big-ticket barbecues aren’t always necessary – the best tool can be the smallest, simplest and least expensive.

Michael Easton runs Little BBQ (littlebbq.co.nz) with his partner Sarah Neale. Their business is curating a range of small, portable barbecues to sell, primarily Japanese shichirin (referred to somewhat erroneously as hibachi in the United States).

Shichirin are small charcoal-burning barbecues made with an inner cavity of diatomaceous earth (a type of clay) or metal, or a combination of both, in a simple cylindrical or rectangular shape.

They are very portable and intended to sit on a table.

Easton and Neale also stock other cult favourites, such as the The Cobb, from South Africa, which features a domed lid that is a good buffer for windy conditions, and the Una with its appealing, sleek, Dutch design.

Sales across New Zealand and Australia are soaring, and the couple are in the process of setting up ‘‘a barbecue amphitheatre’’ as Easton calls it, to film clips for a Little BBQ YouTube channel.

Interestingly, their customer base is slightly skewed towards women, and the South Island and Wellington pip Auckland in sales.

‘‘Perhaps the rest of the country has less rain than Auckland,’’ Easton laughs.

The pair first discovered the tabletop barbecuing and dining concept while holidaying in Tahiti. At a restaurant that had small barbecues and ready-to-cook food on each table, ‘‘we slapped everything on and cooked, piled the plate high with food and ate it in one go,’’ Easton says.

But afterwards they noticed the Japanese and French families around them were taking it slowly, cooking and eating in a far more leisurely style.

The couple were charmed by the social aspect of family and friends sitting down together, cooking and eating simultaneously, a very different

You’ll be charmed by the social aspect of family and friends sitting down together, cooking and eating simultaneously, a very different approach to one cook sweating away in the kitchen, or the lone barbecue cook tucked away in the backyard.

approach to one cook sweating away in the kitchen to produce a meal that comes out in one go, or the lone barbecue cook tucked away in the backyard, receiving the occasional delivery of a beer and snatch of banter.

‘‘It’s genuinely interactive,’’ Easton says, ‘‘everyone gets involved.’’ It just requires a little organisation – the prepping of everything beforehand so that your table is set up with the charcoal burning away, the cutlery set, and sides and condiments ready to be enjoyed along with hot morsels as they’re peeled off the grill.

That these small barbecues are charcoal-fuelled is a drawcard – gas barbecues have been steadily falling out of favour as cooks come to consider the flavour boost that charcoal offers is a must. And the smaller the barbecue, the less charcoal you