Japanese with Manga

Sengoku's idea of high heat with 強火

Vocabulary Explanation: Collocations for cooking

In a school kitchen, Sakura, in glasses and a headscarf, shouts in shock at Sengoku, who stands with his back turned and a question mark over his head. Behind them, flames flare up around a pot on the stove. Remi's long hair shows at the left edge.
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In cooking class, Sakura is in the same group as Remi and Sengoku, who can barely cook. Sakura told Sengoku to heat up the curry. He turned the burner up until flames roared around the pot, and Sakura asked what kind of heat he thought he was using.

仙石(せんごく):
「強火(つよび)だろう？」
“It's high heat, isn't it?”
桜(さくら):
「強火(つよび)！？今(いま)の強火(つよび)！！？」
“High heat?! You call that high heat?!”
Literal: “High heat?! That just now was high heat?!”
「何(なに)…何(なに)したの！？」
“What… What did you do?!”
「こんな強火(つよび)はじめて見(み)たよ」
“I've never seen heat that high.”
綾崎(あやさき):
「桜(さくら)ぁ……」
“Sakura…”

Key Points

1強火(つよび) = high heat
  • Recipes give heat in a set of words built on 火(ひ), the burner’s flame: 強火(つよび) high, 中火(ちゅうび) medium, 弱火(よわび) low, and とろ火(び) very low. After another word, 火(ひ) is read び.
  • They take で for how you cook something, as in 強火(つよび)で炒(いた)める, “stir-fry over high heat”, and に for changing the setting, as in 弱火(よわび)にする, “turn it down to low”.
  • 強火(つよび) still means a flame kept under the pot. A recipe would never call for fire that climbs up its sides, so Sakura refuses to accept Sengoku’s word for it.
2今(いま)の強火(つよび) = that was high heat?
  • 今(いま)の points to something that just happened, “the one just now”. 今(いま)の強火(つよび)！！？ asks whether what everyone just saw really counts as high heat.
  • Sakura repeats his word twice, first in disbelief, then pointing back at the fire. The extra punctuation shows her voice climbing.
3強火(つよび)だろう？ = it’s high heat, isn’t it?
  • だろう with a rising tone asks the listener to agree with something the speaker treats as obvious. Sengoku answers Sakura’s question as if she should know already.
4何(なに)したの！？ = what did you do?!
  • の at the end of a question asks for an explanation of what the speaker can see. Sakura sees the fire and wants to know how Sengoku caused it.
5こんな強火(つよび)はじめて見(み)た = I’ve never seen heat like this
  • はじめて見(み)た means “I saw it for the first time”, so English says “I’ve never seen”. こんな puts the fire in front of them as the thing that’s new.

Vocabulary

(High heat)

強火(つよび) is a strong flame on a stove, the highest of the usual heat settings in cooking.

See Also

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