【April】The "4-Cheese Hamburg Steak Set Meal" That Brings Back the Excitement of Childhood

When Grandpa asked what I wanted to eat, I answered, "Hamburg steak."

 

Lately, the number of times I go to Grandpa's house has increased, because my little sister runs a fever all the time. She’s been frail since she was born, and ever since she started kindergarten, she catches whatever is going around immediately. Every time that happens, I get sent over there so I don't catch it from her.

 

Grandpa always takes me out for dinner. Without fail, it's the neighborhood Yayoi Ken.

 

Today, I chose the 4-Cheese Hamburg Steak Set Meal. The meat is juicy, of course, but what’s really delicious is how the rich cheese, melted together with the demi-glace sauce, gets tangled up with the ketchup-flavored spaghetti laid underneath the hamburg steak. The fact that it comes with french fries is awesome, too. Seeing me gobble it all up in the blink of an eye, Grandpa says, "Keep this a secret," and orders an extra small side dish of fries for me as well.

 

Around the time my sister entered kindergarten, I reached the age where I graduated from Kids' Meals. I started being called "Big Sister" instead of my name more often, too. But sometimes, I miss it terribly. I was supposed to hate those plastic plates with characters on them for being childish, but now I feel nostalgic for those days when I could fully enjoy being a child.

 

"That’s a beautiful *Jinza-momi*."

 

Suddenly, Grandpa looked at me earnestly. When I tilted my head in confusion, he wrote *Jinza-momi* on a paper napkin with a ballpoint pen. It seems he was talking about the color of my dress.

 

"It refers to a yellowish crimson. Apparently, safflower dye was expensive in the old days,  so they’d use a different kind of flower to do the dying, and called it Jinza-momi. Your late grandmother liked to wear clothes of that color when viewing cherry blossoms."

 

"......Am I a substitute for Grandma?"

 

When I asked, feeling a little sulky, Grandpa looked surprised for a moment, then his shoulders shook with amusement.

 

"No one can ever be a substitute for someone else. And as far as I know, you're the only one who enjoys hamburg steak so much."

 

"Hmm," I murmured again. A hamburg steak set meal as a substitute for a Kids' Meal. Unlike a real Kids' Meal at Yayoi Ken, it doesn't come with a toy or orange juice. But, in exchange, I can choose what I want to eat, whether it's a demi-glace hamburg steak or a Japanese-style grated radish hamburger steak.

 

"Then, shall we go see the cherry blossoms together on the way home today?"

 

When I said that, Grandpa showed a gentle smile I had never seen before. My sister probably doesn't know that our usually sullen Grandpa can be this kind. I could keep this as my own special secret, but I decide in my heart that I'll bring her along once she gets better. And I guess I'll share my fries with her, too.

 

But for today, the fries and Grandpa are still all mine.

 

Story by Momo Tachibana / Illustration by Mog Hatakeyama