Beef short rib and an alarming quantity of onion, tossed in a sweet soy tare and pressed onto a hot iron plate. The onion is not a garnish. It goes on in volume, collapses, releases water, and the whole thing stays wet to the end rather than drying out the way most grilled meat does.

The origin is roughly fifty years back, at a food stall in front of the American air base at Misawa. Personnel there kept cattle for their own steaks, and once the lean cuts were taken the fatty rib meat and offal were sold off cheaply. Workers cooked what was left with onions, and the dish came from that.

Towada, in the same cultural orbit, took it up, and it is now the thing the city is known for. In December 2008 a local group formed around it, made up of shopkeepers, city staff, the chamber of commerce youth wing, office workers, students.

What I like is the criterion they used. Rather than inventing a specialty, they looked for something residents were already eating and chose that. It is a small distinction and it decides everything about whether such a campaign feels honest. The pan arrives sizzling at the table and nobody in Towada treats the thing as a novelty, because for them it is simply dinner.