Aux Co. Ltd. Japan Sukueru Knife
This unique serving spoon-knife combo tool is a must-have for serving. Right at the table (or the picnic blanket or the potluck), you can use the serrated edge to cut out your perfect portion of food and then use the dipped bowl of the spoon to easily scoop it into your plate. The concave shape and wider width actually lifts up the food and holds it there—it won’t go tumbling back onto the platter like it would with a classic narrow, triangular server. The blade is sharp enough to cut through pizza crust and it’s ideal for slicing through gooey lasagna without lopping off that top layer of chewy cheese trying to slice and serve. Plus, it’s made from durable, dishwasher safe stainless steel with a satin finish, which is great for camouflaging scratches after frequent use. (And we promise you’ll be using this tool quite a bit.)
Namikura Kyoto-Style White Miso
Savory, sweet and flavor-dense, white miso is an absolutely essential pantry item. Winey-sweet, buttery and deeply rich, this organic version from Japanese family producer Namikura Miso Co. is more complex and less salty than other brands, which means it can be used more freely with soy sauce without dishes tasting overly seasoned.
Yakami Orchard Yuzu Marmalade
Juicy, flavorful and wonderfully textured Yakami Orchards Yuzu Marmalade is made with fresh, local yuzu from a collective of family farms in Japan’s Miyazaki prefecture. Balanced out with honey and sugar, this yuzu marmalade is bright, tart and warmly sweet with every bite. Just by opening a jar of Yakami Orchards’ product, you’ll be able to smell the bright and subtly floral aroma of yuzu. We love the plentiful chunks of yuzu rind, which are thinly sliced and add texture without making the marmalade clumpy. The yuzu pieces contribute a pop of piney bitterness that is a pleasant counterbalance for the overall sweet spread.
Aux Co. Ltd: Japan Sukueru Knife
This unique serving spoon-knife combo tool is a must-have for serving. Right at the table (or the picnic blanket or the potluck), you can use the serrated edge to cut out your perfect portion of food and then use the dipped bowl of the spoon to easily scoop it into your plate. The concave shape and wider width actually lifts up the food and holds it there—it won’t go tumbling back onto the platter like it would with a classic narrow, triangular server. The blade is sharp enough to cut through pizza crust and it’s ideal for slicing through gooey lasagna without lopping off that top layer of chewy cheese trying to slice and serve. Plus, it’s made from durable, dishwasher safe stainless steel with a satin finish, which is great for camouflaging scratches after frequent use. (And we promise you’ll be using this tool quite a bit.)
Namikura Red Miso
Red Miso is stronger, saltier and more assertively flavored than yellow or white miso due to its six-month aging process and has a higher proportion of soybeans for a richer taste. This particularly interesting version has sweet flavors reminiscent of sherry and milk chocolate that are perfect for pairing with red meat and other robust dishes.
Aux Co. Ltd. Gassiri Tongs
Though upon first glance Aux Co. Ltd’s Gassiri Tongs seem just like any other pair, our kitchen team was blown away after testing them. The rounded shape makes it easy to pick up spherical items like meatballs, eggs or potatoes that may run away using a normal pair of tongs. But the sides of these tongs are what really set them apart—one is designed with slits and the other with a scoop that can hold about a tablespoon of liquid. Use the slotted side to strain out unwanted liquid, like when rendering bacon, or use the scoop side to add pasta water to your sauce. Sturdy stainless steel construction—complete with a sufficient handle length—also makes these tongs strong and safe so you can pick up heavy, hot ingredients without any problems. However, they can still be used delicately—they work just as well picking up a strand of spaghetti or a soft boiled egg.
Maruhon Lightly Toasted Sesame Oil
Sesame oil is an essential ingredient in East Asian cuisine for adding aromatic depth, but too often it can be cloying and overpowering. We tasted numerous versions and especially like Maruhon Lightly Toasted Sesame Oil made by Takemoto Oil & Fat Company, the oldest operating oil-extracting company in Japan, which traces its roots to 1725. Maruhon Lightly Toasted Sesame Oil has a far more delicate, nuanced flavor than supermarket versions and tastes distinctly of sesame, unlike the generic nuttiness of some mass-produced versions. This producer uses a chemical-free extraction process, which is not only healthier but also yields a cleaner taste that doesn’t overpower light dishes but stands up to heavier ones. The oil adds just the right amount of nutty richness and is much more aromatic than others we've tried.
Hasegawa Wood Core Soft Rubber Cutting Board
This cutting board is not only durable, but it also will prolong the life of your knife blade. The “pull and slice” technique is the common way to slice food in Japanese cooking, which can often lead to chipped edges if using a hard cutting board. But this one is coated in layers of soft plastic that provides much better protection for your knives and protection for your fingers, since it’s non-slip. Plus, the material has strong antimicrobial properties—one of the highest standards in Japan—so it won’t hold germs as much as a standard cutting board would between uses. It’s wood core keeps the cutting board from warping from use and high-temperature dishwashing. And since it’s not entirely made of wood, it much more light weight to use.
Aux Co. Mesh Cover
A good splatter screen will protect your kitchen, arms and clothes from hot splattering oil while frying, but most trap steam that prevents crisping and cover the contents of your pan to the point it’s harder to see your food’s progress. Aux Co. Ltd’s Mesh Cover Splatter Screen solves these problems, both eliminating dangerous splattering from foods like bacon, while also allowing you to see inside your pan thanks to non-reflective material. It’s constructed from durable stainless steel—unlike other splatter screens made from flimsy plastic—plus, extra-fine mesh, which stops popping oil and allows steam to escape to ensure crispy results. And the mesh is non-stick, so it’s easy to clean. We love that it’s made in Japan’s Tsubame-Sanjo, an area renowned for its superior metal craftsmanship and expertise, so we trust it will be long lasting and stand up to grease and heat.
Suncraft Silicone Slim Spatula
Please allow 3-5 business days for this item to ship
Our very own Matthew Card (our creative director of recipes and products) loves this stylish and functional mini spatula: “This the best tool I've ever used for getting the last little bits out of a jar. It's really perfectly designed to get into every nook and cranny. With its wood core, it's solid enough to use some force, too; many other brands bend, so they aren't really that useful.” It helps cut down on food waste by squeezing into the corners of jars and packages, and its slender shape is great for swiping the sides of blenders and food processors.
Shibanuma Yakiniku BBQ Sauce
Translating to “grilled meat” in Japanese, yakiniku is a social style of cooking and eating around a communal grill. Popular throughout Japan, family and friends gather around a tabletop grill to cook meat, vegetables and fish together before dipping them into a several kinds of yakiniku sauces. Shibanuma’s Yakiniku BBQ Sauce is inspired by this concept. Crafted by a 330-year-old esteemed Japanese soy sauce maker, it is no surprise that the first ingredient in this sauce is an umami-rich soy sauce, which is brewed and aged in wooden barrels. The soy is then combined with onion, fruity apple and zingy sansho pepper—a fragrant and floral Japanese peppercorn—to cut through the richness and balance out the flavors. The result? A complex grilling sauce that works just as well as a marinade as it does drizzled over rice.
Milk Street Cast Iron Furusato
Here at Milk Street, we’re big proponents of cooking with cast iron because it heats evenly and retains that heat—which is why we designed our own pot for the ideal solution for soups and stews. Our Cast Iron Furusato is modeled after the traditional pot used for Japanese nabe (hot pot), but its durable cast-iron craftsmanship and stunning wooden lid carved from Japanese cedar make it a candidate for everyday use. Sturdy yet light enough to use often, it’s equipped with a swinging handle for easy maneuvering. Plus, unlike some furusato pots, this one is compatible with any stovetop, and it comes with a small silicone pot holder.
Sennari Vinegar Brewery Organic Rice Vinegar
Made from only two ingredients—organic rice and water from the mountains of Northern Hiroshima—this organic rice vinegar is a cut above standard supermarket varieties. Slightly sweeter, with a rounder flavor and more umami notes than most rice vinegars, its subtle acidity offers a much more balanced outcome, so no bitterness or harshness comes through. Sennari, a brewery established in Japan in 1927, uses a traditional static fermentation process to produce their vinegars. Koji, a natural fermentation culture, is combined with steamed organic rice and nearby mountain water featuring a soft PH of 7. The combination ferments and develops naturally over the course of six months, resulting in a rice vinegar with a more mild acidity and elevated taste. Conventional mass produced vinegar is usually made in just one week using an automatic fermentation method, the result of which we found lacking in taste.
Aux Co. Moritsuke Tong
Roughly translating to “the Japanese art of presenting food,” moritsuke is a beloved tradition and delicate art. It’s a fitting name for Aux Co. Ltd’s Moritsuke Tongs, which are precise like kitchen tweezers, but still sturdy, making them the perfect multiuse tool for anything from frying to plating to serving. Sleek, with a long handle and slight offset angle, these tongs are great for twirling pasta, flipping over food in a pan, deep-frying and tossing salads. The cupped head of the tongs is ideal for picking up food without crushing it and is also strong enough to pick up heavier ingredients, like meatballs, and place them on a nest of spaghetti. Plus, the narrow head of the tongs come together to a fine point, allowing for precision and ease while plating, even for smaller ingredients like thinly sliced pieces of meat. And when they’re not in use, they can be flipped upside down to keep any food residue off your table.