I don’t have any written recipes from my grandmother. So when we found some hand written notes tucked inside a coil bound cookbook in Aaron’s beloved Grammy’s house after she passed days away from her 94th birthday in 2022 I was so comforted.

When the family had time to take a closer look, it was Aaron’s mom’s writing all through the cookbook and not Grammy’s. On post-its and scraps of paper tucked in and on the margins. It must have fallen to her but remained at the house.

Unlike kids in school today I did learn cursive but I sometimes have a hard time reading her beautiful, swirling handwriting in places. I think about the blue note book I write everything we make, research and develop for the pickle biz in, and if anyone will be able to decipher my block letters 50 years from now, because not only am I dyslexic but I often write those entries at the end of some very long days.

I think about family recipes a lot.

Grammy is Aaron’s mom’s mom, so a Nishino by marriage and a Onishi by birth. That’s important to know. The Japanese Canadian community can do mind reading level magic tricks and know your whole family by knowing your surname.

Grammy’s English name was Pollie and she was never Obāsan, always Grammy. Grammy loved to bowl, in fact that is how she and Aaron’s grandfather, Takeshi, met. Through the Japanese Buddhist Bowling League.

*Pollie and Tak are in the second row, on the right. Are they not THEE cutest?*

Other things to know about Grammy: she’d sit in the booth in the kitchen of their mid-century home in Scarborough, that they bought in 1955, listening to the Blue Jays game on the radio, either doing the crossword or crocheting something.

It was when the four Nishino kids were well into their teens that the family started becoming involved with the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. She become well known for her teriyaki chicken that was served up to visitors during matsuri (festivals). Some people still remember it fondly and call her the Chicken Lady. Her teriyaki recipe was published in the JCCC’s cookbook Just Add Shoyu (soy sauce) in 2010 alongside other Japanese Canadian family comfort foods.

You can watch this really cool behind the scenes video of the photographing of that cookbook here.

When Aaron and I started dating in 2017, attending matsuri became pretty important to the both of us. All branches of his family roll up their sleeves to volunteer at the cultural centre.

*Left: A fraction of musubi needed at any given matsuri. Right: Yuli holding a tray of musubi like the master chef they think they are.*

We all volunteer in the kitchen.

Aaron and I have made hundreds of musubi (a type of onigiri rice ball made with Spam, rice and nori snacks).

Before any of that, before this generation of Yonsei and Gosei (terms for 4th and 5th generation of people in the Japanese diaspora living outside of Japan, but usually used for those who emigrated to North America at the turn of the 20th century) were twinkles in anyone’s eyes, the Nisei (2nd gen) Women’s Club put out Treasured Recipes in 1975.

And there are some bangers in there. Just look at the page for cooking for Super Quantities. Turkey Dinner for a casual 250 people.

This is the cookbook we found at Grammy’s and we thought you’d all appreciate seeing a few pages from it.