This came out of a shop in Aomori city called Aji no Sapporo, at a point in its history when it occupied a small unit inside a cinema building.

The regulars there were middle and high school students, and they had a game of their own going. They would put things into their ramen. Ketchup, mayonnaise, whatever was on the table, in various combinations, to see what happened. Most of it presumably did not work.

Out of all that experimenting came one specific finding: miso ramen with curry powder and milk stirred into it is extremely good, and better than any of the other combinations they had tried. Somebody at the shop actually made a bowl that way, word of it spread among the students, and in 1978 the thing was promoted to being a proper item on the menu.

On top go chashu and menma, plus bean sprouts and wakame, and, invariably, a pat of butter. The milk and the butter round off the edges of the miso and the curry, which on their own would fight. Five shops in Aomori city serve it now. A thing that started out as teenagers messing about with the condiments on a table has become the food the city is known for, which is not something that happens very often anywhere.