I should first note that this is the way that I BBQ and that what I am doing would not be considered BBQ-ing by some people. It’s not important. Cooking foods over fire is something basic and natural and I’m always happy to have the chance to cook outside.

I don’t like to use chemicals when I’m cooking, so I start my fire with wood shavings. I use a Japanese wood planer and a piece of rectangular wood to get the shavings.

After this, I add some small pieces of wood. Because I do a lot of wood chopping, I always have small pieces of wood that can be used to start my fire.After the wood pieces, I add some charcoal and start the fire. Once the charcoal is burning well, I can remove the chimney starter and wait until the charcoal is covered with grey ash. First up tonight was corn on the cob.Next, I toasted some bread and put some onions on the grill. They were part of our tomato salad.

There’s no pictures of the meat cooking because things were busy after finishing the items for the salad. I had to toss the salad and then get the meat cooking. We enjoyed our dinner outside tonight, sitting by the fire, chatting and eating. It was relaxing and satisfying. For those of you in Japan who usually don’t BBQ at home, I encourage you to give it a try. I’m sure you will be pleased with your results.