Can you guess which city posts the most photos of pulled pork on Instagram? Hint: It’s not Kansas City, or any other U.S. city for that matter. You might be surprised to learn that London is tops for pulled pork hashtags on the social media site, responsible for more than any other location around the globe.

Londoners have fallen in love with all-American Southern cooking, barbecue, and anything grilled (the city is also the top spot for burger Instagrams!). According to a report by CBS News, the city best known for fish and chips now boasts at least 65 Southern restaurants and barbecue joints, with menus featuring fried chicken, gumbo, cornbread, shrimp and grits, and of course, plenty of pulled pork.

“Five years ago, few people in the U.K. had heard of pulled pork,” according to an article in the online global news magazine The Guardian. Not so today. The global food trends agency, “thefoodpeople,” reports a 35 percent rise in the number of American-style barbecue dishes served in U.K. restaurants since 2010, with many of them in authentic establishments such as Pitt Cue Co. and Grillstock that have been opening in London, Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Brighton, Bristol and beyond.

Some of these restaurants are run by expat pitmasters who were persuaded to take their smoke-and-fire skills abroad. Others, such as Cardiff-based Hangfire Smokehouse, are run by locals who apprenticed in the states. The two British women who run Hangfire took a six-month sabbatical through the American barbecue belt, offering their free labor in exchange for learning at the smoke-smudged elbows of some top U.S. pitmasters.

Beyond restaurants, pulled pork and other barbecue fare is now available at supermarket prepared-meals counters all over the U.K., and is even featured on British Airways’ first-class in-flight menus. Research by 2 Sisters Food Group, the largest food company in the U.K., a division of which processes fresh meats, shows sales of pulled pork products have grown significantly in the past year, with sales now worth more than £68 million pounds (US$97 million). Barbecue, grilled and smoked meats are expected to remain among the country’s top food trends in 2016 and beyond.

The trend is finding its way to British families’ back gardens, as well. According to “thefoodpeople,” U.K. families now grill outdoors an average of nine times each summer, up from 2.5 times 10 years ago. The trends agency also reports that 14 percent of all U.K. households have two grills and five percent have three or more, with gas-fueled appliances (53 percent) increasingly gaining over charcoal (38 percent) as the fuel of choice.

Last year, the country hosted an estimated five million barbecues during National BBQ Week, held the last week in May. In September, thousands more attended “Meatopia,” a three-day barbecue and grilling festival in London, featuring two dozen chefs cooking meat over wood or charcoal fires. Early-bird tickets for 2016’s fourth annual Meatopia event, billed as a “love affair of meat, drink, fire and music,” sold out in a matter of hours.

“Meatopia,” a three-day barbecue and grilling festival in London.

Grilling Goes Global

It’s not only Brits that are crazy for ’que. The trend is making its way around the world. “The barbecue marketplace in Europe is where we were in the U.S. 20 years ago,” says Steven Raichlen, a barbecue and grilling authority and author of “Planet Barbecue,” the definitive book on international styles of grilling. “I was in Paris recently and there were three new barbecue restaurants in the city of Paris. One restaurant serves the meat directly on butcher paper on a baking sheet. In Paris! This would have been utterly unthinkable five years ago.

Steven Raichlen in Athens, Greece. (Investigating gyro and souvlaki).

“Europe has become an important market for my barbecue books, television shows and products,” he adds. “I walk down the street in Italy and people stop me to say hello and say they watch the show or have my books. I was just approached by someone in India to do a project. There is incredible interest in grilling and barbecuing all around the globe.”

That includes South Africa, where barbecue and other quintessentially American foods such as burgers, fried chicken and waffles, and mac and cheese, are best-sellers in restaurants with names such as Hoghouse Barbecue and Bacon on Bree in Cape Town and Johannesburg, according to the online news service “Voice of America.”

The country also celebrates Braai Day on September 24 to coincide with South African Heritage Day, where everyone in the country is encouraged to gather around barbecue fires and celebrate as a united nation.

Many American grill companies, including Weber, Saber, Bull and others, are expanding overseas, bringing their products to a new and eager customer base around the world. In addition to growing an international retail presence, the Big Green Egg is also finding its way into restaurant kitchens in South Africa, the Netherlands, England, Portugal, Germany, New Zealand and other countries, partnering with chefs who use the kamado cookers to barbecue, grill and smoke.

Cooking on the Big Green Egg in the Piedmont region, Italy.

International Influence at Home

Why the fascination? “Barbecue represents some of the best parts of American culture, like jeans and cowboy boots and rock ‘n’ roll,” says Raichlen. “And, also, everybody loves a hunk of meat.”

But barbecue and grilling are not just export commodities. U.S. tastes are being shaped by an influx of international grilling techniques and flavors. Brazillian rotisserie, Indian tandoor, Japanese yakitori, and Greek souvlaki have all become part of the American grill culture, according to Raichlen. And the equipment needed to recreate these global grilling styles is also making its way into the marketplace.

Today, pizza ovens are probably the most familiar and widely available, internationally rooted outdoor cooking appliance to penetrate the American grill market. Models are now offered by many manufacturers and range from huge, old-school, custom-masonry ovens, to modular masonry kits, to mid-size cart-based units, to plug-‘n’-play stainless-steel countertop appliances.

Chef cooking on Evo.

Flattop grills and accessories, such as those from Evo, Plancha Grills, Little Griddle, Steven Raichlen Best of Barbecue, and other manufacturers, recreate the deep crusty sear of cooking on a solid-surface plancha-style grill.

Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet’s Gaucho Grill features a wheel to raise and lower the cooking grid in proximity to the wood fire, in the style of an Argentinian grill. The Carson Rodizio recreates the Brazilian rotisserie experience. And for grillers who really want the world at their fingertips, Wildwood Ovens makes its Yakitori Barbecues, Brazilian Churrasqueiras, Argentinian Parilla Barbecues, and Pizza Ovens.

According to Raichlen, Indonesian satay bars and Thai barbecue restaurants may be the next big thing. “They haven’t caught on yet, but I’m sure they will,” he says.

While this may be a safe bet, there are other international grilled delicacies that are highly unlikely to make an appearance at an American backyard barbecue anytime soon. One is “Betamax” – a popular Filipino street food made from coagulated chicken blood that’s cut into squares and grilled. “It’s black and looks like the old video cassette tapes, hence the name Betamax,” explains Raichlen. “It was the weirdest thing I ever ate while researching ‘Planet Barbecue.’”