Masaaki-sama’s Sacred Word Mandarins grilled on a small, ceramic charcoal grill (or “shichirin”). A winter tradition in our home. As I am always saying, I do not eat salad. And fruits, I usually only eat them on fancy occasions. I heard from someone that you can liken the key to health to going from katakana meals to hiragana or kanji meals [Katakana, hiragana and kanji are the three writing systems of Japan. Katakana characters (angular looking script) are used for foreign loan words, while hiragana (rounded script) and kanji (Chinese characters) are for native, everyday Japanese], and I couldn’t agree more. From bread to rice. From Western-style soup to miso soup. From yogurt to pickled vegetables. From coffee to tea. I’d like you to try to imagine the following. An Italian person eating rice, pickled plum and miso soup, every morning, and then sipping tea. Aren’t images like this unnatural? But when we look at Japan today, the people drink coffee from the morning and eat bread and yogurt, like it is common sense. They happily spread butter or jam on their bread. Is there a more absurd sight than this? It is the end result of food colonization, the occupation of the stomach. What I am trying to say is, if the Japanese were to eat fruits, it would not be bananas, pineapples or foreign-named fruits, but rather fruits like apples or mandarins (although apples and mandarins are not native to Japan either, but I think you understand what I am getting at). In our home, we eat mandarins as they are too. However, in daily life in the past, eating raw fruits would cool the body too much, so the wisdom of heating fruit on a heating brazier (a traditional Japanese “hibachi”) or ceramic charcoal grill (“shichirin”) was passed down. With grilled mandarins too, it seems that in some cases, salt was put in through the stem end. When you have a little bit of the peel from the grilled mandarins, it is said to have the power to heal the lungs and other organs of the respiratory system, which tend to be negatively impacted in the winter. Breathing becomes easier. Now I’d like to get to the topic of conversation, the flavor. The umami of the mandarin concentrates, and the aromatic complexity is so pronounced, you may wonder, “Is this mandarin cake?” You peel the piping hot mandarin, and say, “Hot, hot, hot!” as you place a segment into your mouth, which fills with overflowing, rich mandarin juice. I know it sounds cliché, but it is pure heaven. Now let me try the peel. It has a slight bitterness, but it goes well with the fruit. As you slowly heat the mandarins, you do everything you can to control the impulse to eat those mandarins that can be eaten right away if they’re peeled. The peel begins to char, and from the inside seeps through piping hot fruit juice. Once you get past this process, the exceptionality of eating it cannot be put into words. Meat eaters may refuse to eat these grilled mandarins taken to the ultimate level with the moisture cooked away. They would probably prefer to eat regular mandarins. Why? It’s because the ingestion of meat makes their blood thick and murky, causing the body to desperately seek fluid, desperately seek fresh fruit, desperately seek salads. How is it that the Japanese are eating this much Western-style salad that had not originally existed before in the culture? It is because their bodies are trying to clean the blood that has been polluted by meat-eating and thus seeking fluid. In other words, it is inevitable that meat-eaters like salad, that they want salad. I surmise that this is the same reason why people nowadays are urged to drink plenty of water. The Japanese people of the past would not have been drinking such an excess of water. When thinking about it this way, the true deliciousness of charcoal-grilled mandarins may be a special privilege reserved for practitioners of the vegan diet. With wisdom, creativity and gratitude, I would like to humbly eat this winter staple that is the mandarin. These were my thoughts on this winter day. ---------- With each and every word from Masaaki-sama, the dining tables of modern Japan are brought into light. I was reminded of my own behavior, one after another—blindly accepting Western food culture, drinking massive amount of water and calling it “detox,” etc.—it was like I was being slapped in the face. Masaaki-sama has graciously shared a part of his daily life, which he calls “a winter tradition in our home,” guiding us away from our wayward Western dietary habits toward true food culture. I am filled with nothing but gratitude. Mandarins with their peels beautifully browned on the grill. The vivid image of Masaaki-sama patiently grilling mandarins before the ceramic charcoal grill appears before my eyes, and the scene moves my heart deeply. The reason for this impact is none other than that Masaaki-sama is showing us the true food culture that we Japanese have nearly lost. Moreover, according to Mami-okusama, these mandarins were grown at her parents’ home with the method that could be called Masaaki-sama Farming—completely pesticide-free, fertilizer-free and so forth. The moments spent waiting in front of the charcoal grill for the mandarins to finish cooking. When we actually spend that time following Masaaki-sama’s example, I can’t help but feel that the true Japanese food culture we had nearly lost will be revived within us. Let us also experience that flavor rooted in Japanese tradition that Masaaki-sama called “pure heaven,” and from now on, every winter, let us grill mandarins on the ceramic charcoal grill and make it our own winter tradition too. Grilled mandarins—a winter treasure!Likes, saves and shares are most welcome! ✨