Seri Nabe

Seri is Japanese parsley, one of the seven spring herbs, and Miyagi grows more of it than anywhere else in the country. Seri nabe is a hot pot built around it, in a light soy stock with chicken, tofu, mushrooms and wheat gluten, and the herb goes in last so that it barely cooks.

The part that surprises people is the root. Everywhere else in Japan the roots are cut off and thrown away; here they are washed and put in the pot whole, and they are the best thing in it — crisp, white and intensely aromatic in a way the leaves are not. It became a Sendai winter fixture in the 2000s after a downtown izakaya started serving it that way, and it is now on menus across the city from December to March.