Aji no Sapporo Onishi

Miso curry milk ramen is exactly what it says: a miso base, curry powder, milk, and a pat of butter on top, with bean sprouts and chashu. It sounds like a dare. It was invented in Aomori in the 1970s, reportedly by students asking a ramen shop to combine the three things on the menu they liked, and it has been the city's own dish ever since — sold in convenience stores and instant form across the prefecture, and taken entirely seriously here.

It works because the milk rounds off the salt of the miso and carries the curry, and the butter melts into the surface. Aji no Sapporo Onishi is the shop most closely associated with it and serves it at ¥980. The place is a plain city ramen counter on a shopping street near Aomori Station, cash only, closed two days a week, with none of the presentation that a dish this unusual might attract elsewhere.