Barbecue or barbeque (common spelling variant with abbreviations BBQ, Bar-B-Q and Barbie), used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia (called Braai in South Africa) is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of charcoal or Liquefied petroleum gas.