Lettuce Maki

In 1966 the owner of a sushi shop in Miyazaki City made a roll of boiled prawn, lettuce and mayonnaise. At the time raw vegetables and mayonnaise in sushi were considered wrong, and he made it because a friend who could not eat raw fish wanted something he could. It worked, and by the late 1970s supermarkets across Japan were selling versions of it as salad rolls.

So the salad maki on every conveyor belt in the country traces back to one shop in Miyazaki, which is a reasonable claim to fame for a prefecture better known for chicken. Ippei Sushi still makes the original, and the technique is in the rolling — firm enough to hold, loose enough that the lettuce still snaps. Shops across the city serve their own versions.