Go stands for Goma (sesame seeds); it represents any kind of seeds or nuts: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and so forth. Sachiaki Takamiya shares that in Japan, they use it as a seasoning: they ground the seeds and sprinkle them on foods like salad or steamed vegetables.
Nick: All right, moving on to the second syllable of mago, so go, what does go represent or mean in Japanese?
Sachiaki: Go is goma, which means sesame seeds. So go represents any kind of seeds and nuts. So sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almond nut, peanut, cashew nuts, all kinds of nuts -- nuts and seeds.
Nick: And how is goma used in cooking?
Sachiaki: Goma is usually grounded and we kind of sprinkle sesame seeds on salad or vinegared vegetables or steamed vegetables and so on. So we usually use sesame seeds as -- you use them to make sort of flavor.
Nick: Okay, so it's a seasoning.
Sachiaki: Seasoning. Yeah, as a seasoning.
Nick: Yeah, I know goma is becoming popular and there's actually goma or black sesame ice cream.
Sachiaki: Oh, yeah, there are black sesame ice creams in Australia.
Nick: I think in most Western countries now, if you go to a Japanese restaurant, they'll have for example matcha ice cream or black sesame goma ice cream.
Sachiaki: Oh, yeah, I imagine about matcha ice cream but I didn't know about kurogoma ice cream.
Nick: Yeah. Okay, kurogoma, yeah, black. So kuro is black.