Sendai miso is worked together with sugar, walnuts, sesame, and chili until it becomes a paste. A spoonful of it goes onto a green shiso leaf, the leaf is rolled around it, a toothpick holds the roll shut, and the whole thing goes into hot oil.

Two origin stories circulate, as they usually do. One credits Date Masamune, which is what happens to most old food in this prefecture. The other says it was made in Naruko for people staying at the hot springs to take the waters, which is more plausible and less repeated.

It started out as a plain side dish to be eaten with rice. Once sugar went into the paste it moved sideways, becoming something eaten with tea or handed to children in the afternoon, and it is also standard in a packed lunch. That is an unusual amount of range for an object made of miso and a leaf.

In Miyagi it is on sale all year round in supermarkets and at roadside stations, and it is eaten in Iwate and in Yamagata as well, where people have their own versions. What I would actually like to see is the moment of invention. Somebody looked at fermented soybean paste, walnuts, and a herb leaf, and decided the correct thing to do was fry them together.