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Cochinillo asado has appeared in literature throughout history, from Cervantes to Hemingway. The prized piglets featured in the dish are slaughtered after about a month, when they still weigh less than 10 pounds.

Tlacoyos are a doughy corn tortilla of sorts that's cooked on a grill. Whether enjoyed on a plastic plate as street food or fine china in a high-end restaurant, it's been a favorite snack for centuries.

Jan Scannell is a 32-year-old former accountant with a dream: to establish a national holiday in South Africa like July 4 called Braai Day. Braai is a South African barbecue of meat or vegetables over wood embers.

The Iraqis, among many other Middle Easterners, believe they invented the kebab. The skewered meat dish appears as early as the 9th century in a book from the southern city of Basra called The Book of Misers.

The fishermen are out in all weather in Turkey's Bosphorus Strait. So there's no question that the fish is fresh, as area chefs carry on the tradition of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Ottomans in putting fish to the fire.

Japanese grilled cuisine packs a "one-two punch," says cookbook co-author Harris Salat. He tells NPR's Melissa Block that the techniques emphasize food's natural flavors and focuse on simplicity, while sweet and sour tastes duel for dominance.

The Republic of Georgia is renowned for its cuisine, one of the highlights of which is shashlik, or grilled meat. The secret to seal in the juices, some say, is an ancient technique of grilling over burning grapevines to create intense, fragrant heat.

It's not easy to set up a tandoor oven in the backyard. But chef and writer Madhur Jaffrey says cooking at high heat does something magical to meat, which makes it worthwhile to adapt her tandoor recipes for gas or charcoal grills.

Grilling is a pillar of the American summer, and it's at the heart of many other cultures as well — from Latin America to Africa. This summer All Things Considered is setting out to explore some of them with the "Global Grill."