Ok, the weather in SH is one of the best times to do an outdoor bbq.

Does anyone know where I can buy cheap charcoal (not coal) for a bbq other than carrefour (these are expensive!) ? I have not seen any shops that sell this. Been searching for this for ages.

I'm in Jing An district btw. Would be glad to inherit any surplus charcoal that anyone here has. heh heh

I don't know which one is the nearest to you but I know that Pines have always had charcoal in stock and they have a pretty decent selection as far as the price range.

B&Q is pretty good for things like that. I bought a BBQ there last summer and as far as I remember they had charcoal.

B&Q or Metro, they carry big bags of 10kg, for around 60¥, and its much better than the ones Carrefour or Pines sell, a small box with 3kg.
We bbq every sunday at least, and for 2 sundays we used the boxed one that a friend gave us. It's too small, so we needed to put more, and after, we felt a bit sick, both weekends, after lunch.
Last sunday we went back to the old big bag charcoal, no problem as usual.
We think that the box charcoal could have mineral charcoal among others, and this is too toxic!

Ok thanks everyone for the tips everyone. My friend has ordered from taobao and inclusive of delivery charges, for 10kg its less than 60rmb.

I hope it's charcoal that's made from wood, will do a trial, check it out before using it on my guests.

There's gotta be some cheap place to buy charcoal. Maybe try asking those street vendors who always cook little meet skewers on a grill. I dunno if it's charcoal, but whatever it is, it cooks meat and it's obviously affordable.

Larry252 wrote:There's gotta be some cheap place to buy charcoal. Maybe try asking those street vendors who always cook little meet skewers on a grill. I dunno if it's charcoal, but whatever it is, it cooks meat and it's obviously affordable.

If they carry it, and I think they do....Walmart Shanghai should be the cheapest...

Larry252 wrote:There's gotta be some cheap place to buy charcoal. Maybe try asking those street vendors who always cook little meet skewers on a grill. I dunno if it's charcoal, but whatever it is, it cooks meat and it's obviously affordable.

You don't taste the aftertaste because the meat is too small at the kebab places around town. If you used that coal to cook large steaks, the meat would be infused with some nasty flavor. Those little kebabs lose so much fat as they are being cooked, the flavor from the coal never has a chance to soak in. It is just washed away. Think of how clean the sky in Shanghai looks 2 hours after a major rain storm. The sky looks clean and blue. In a couple of hours the grey haze returns and you are left with your normal pollution levels.

The street vendors use mineral charcoal, NEVER use that! It's poisoness!
Also come , or most, bbq houses here use it.
We saw people delivering charcoal to Latina and Brazilian Steakhouse, so never went there anymore.

Pines carries Kingsford briquettes....pricey but well worth cooking over some charcoal that gets hot enough and lasts long enough compared to the bits of burnt wood sold other places. If your local Pines outlet is out-of-stock you can order and usually comes in next day. Leave your phone number and they'll ring you when it is in.

city shop at the portman (jingan) carries it, but cost is usually higher there.

Anyone able to tell the difference between mineral coal and charcoal?

Do they smell different?

Where to buy whole lump charcoal, which gets hotter and tastes better than briquettes?

you can try tesco, isetan near the camping dept and also from bbq sellers if they would sell you.

Go to any of the little BBQ restaurants where you can BBQ your own food at a table.
They usually have hundreds of boxes of charcoal stocked up. We bought a couple from them in the past.