Apparently Aug 29th is 焼肉の日 (やきにくのひ / BBQ day). The reason for that is 八 for 八月 (August) can be pronounced as "や" for “yaki” and the number 29 represent “に” for two and “く” for nine. Thus somebody thought of connecting that with “ya(ki)niku” – BBQ meat.
So today, I will talk about the verb “焼く / 焼きます” for “yaki_niku”. “やきます” is probably the most frequently used word in cooking and it can mean to grill, broil, roast, pan-fry, bake or toast.
How can you tell which is which?
You can most likely tell by what is being cooked.
ケーキをやきます has to be “I will bake a cake.”
さかなをやきます would most likely mean “I will grill a (piece of) fish.” (indoors) or “I will broil the fish” (outdoors). If not either of these, they will specify the cooking utensil and say:
魚をフライパンでやきます。(I will pan fry the fish in a frying pan.)
or
魚をオーブンでやきます。(I will bake the fish in an oven.)
パンをやきます can mean two different things depending on the situations. If you hear it in the middle of a day, it most likely means “I will bake bread” but if somebody asks you in the morning
パンをやきましょうか then somebody is asking you if you’d like the bread toasted or not.
As for “eggs”… I think it’s going to be a long article, so I will write another article for another day.
