Notes, News, and Nerdiness from JKLA World HQ

Hello Frienjis!

My sincerest apologies for the lateness of this weekly update. Team JKLA and I (that’s me, Akari, Lena, and Erin) have spent the past 10 days in Kyoto, Tokyo, and Niigata on a company trip that has been equal parts food adventure, bonding time, and serious business. It’s the first time I’ve been back to Japan in 15 years (I had a trip scheduled a few years back that got canceled due to Japan’s travel restrictions after Covid), and I was determined to hit the ground running.

We spent the first few nights in Kyoto—one of my favorite cities in the world. Its food traditions are built around kaiseki cuisine, vegetarian food that comes from Buddhist monk traditions, salty pickles and miso-fermented vegetables. We ate a multi-course yudofu meal (fresh silken tofu simmered in water with kombu) at Yudofu Sagano before rowing a boat across the Kamogawa river and feeding apples to monkeys in the park. We pigged out at Wow Wow Tonight, a rowdy modern izakaya with an ever-changing menu whose highlights were a shaved beef, onion, and tofu stew, and a grilled local duck breast served with a pile of pickled sansho peppercorns (a mildly mouth-numbing Japanese relative of Sichuan peppercorns).

I also ate a fantastic cucumber-on-a-stick. Briefly soaked in salt water with a firm, crisp, dense bite and salty-sweet flavor.

In Tokyo we had a multi-course tempura meal at Tenichi. Omakase-style tempura meals that feature a parade of seasonal vegetables and fish need to become more common in the United States. (Perfectly fried tempura is light and crisp and one of the best way to highlight an ingredient’s natural flavor and texture.)

We ate yakitori from Tori Chuu. Note: good yakitori shops are known for using the whole bird, so if you ask for the most interesting parts, you’re going to get them. There were grilled chunks of liver and cartilage, undeveloped egg yolks, and meat cooked tataki style—seared for just a moment on the outside but raw in the middle. It was all excellent. 

Over the course of a few days in Tsubame-Sanjo, we were joined by our knife making partner Gordon Hanson of Vonhelmick Knives in Oregon, along with his family. We were treated by our hosts—the heads of the legendary Aiba Steel—to a few extraordinary kaiseki meals, made almost entirely of locally foraged, grown, caught, fished, aged, or fermented foods. Bowl after tiny bowl of some wild vegetable I’d never heard of, or a fish that I’ve never tasted.

Our time with the Aibas was not just purely for pleasure. I’m itching to tell you what we’re working on but it’ll have to wait (don’t worry—Super Frienjis will be the very first to know).

There were many more good times and good meals, and I’ll be sharing more details of all that in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

Happy Birthday, Lena!

For now, I’d like to express a hearty and heartfelt happy birthday to Lena. We celebrated with her on our last night in Tokyo by heading to Meiji stadium and catching the Swallows and the Giants. (The Swallows won and the crowd erupted into a sea of dancing umbrellas!)

As anyone who knows her could tell you, Lena is a truly positive spirit whose warmth, curiosity, and enthusiasm cannot be contained. I met her while she was working at the Seattle Aquarium leading up to the opening of their new Ocean Pavilion. I ended up spending a day with her as she introduced me to the team of animaliists and scientists that cared for the fish kept at their off-site facilities. My first thought was “I need a friend like Lena in my life.” Then, in what may have been the smartest thing I’ve ever done, I overcame my natural shyness and took the initiative to email her and tell her exactly that.

Luckily, the feeling was mutual, and what started as a professional acquaintance turned into a true friendship, and has since blossomed into an extraordinarily fruitful working relationship.

Lena is always there to find the most effective way to focus my curiosity and excitement. She’s added structure and predictability to the business, and has helped build it out in ways that have brought even more passionate, smart, and kind people into the fold. Like any truly great manager, she recognizes the best traits in each of us and knows how to corral those traits and focus them towards a goal. That’s a skill that,—at least for me—feels like trying to play Tetris blindfolded and I’m constantly floored by her ability.

Lena is a relationship builder and a mover and a shaker and a lover of humans of all shapes and sizes, and I am so grateful to have met her.

Happy Birthday Lena, we all love you!

P.S. Please enjoy your next few days solo-cycling around Japan!

There's Still Time to Try the Cookbook Club!

Already, we've had 77 Frienjis test out a recipe variation in their own home (test) kitchens and fill out a feedback survey. Why is this feedback important? For example, every single person—with only two exceptions—who tested the Peruvian-style chicken with cilantro rice, cabbage, and green sauce had trouble sourcing aji amarillo paste. While, on the other hand, there were nearly no ingredients substitutions required for the Harissa chicken variation, with the lemony-herb version landing somewhere in the middle. This feedback is incredibly valuable as we shape this cookbook to be something that works for home chefs from all around the world.

And if you're enjoying this month's sneak peek of the Cookbook Club, consider joining the club full time! We release dish variations the first week of the month. Join monthly and cancel anytime, or join for a full year and get your name printed in the cookbook we're working on together.

Have You Gotten Your Rice Cooker Yet?

Last week, I announced a new rice cooker in collaboration with Our Place. This cooker was made with non-toxic materials, it looks great on a kitchen counter, it's easy and intuitive to use—and it's got some great, tactile, clicky buttons. But perhaps its most important feature is something you can't see: It uses fuzzy logic technology to ensure perfect cooking every time. Learn more about what that means and consider getting one yourself!

Don't forget: Super Frienjis like you can enjoy 10% off by using code KENJI10.