Gourmet food created by a collaboration between a parsley farmer and a small restaurant

These days, the north wind caressing my cheeks is getting colder little by little, and the signs of winter are starting to hang in the air. How about a warm hot pot with steam rising? This time we would like to introduce hotpot dishes that are popular as the "taste of Sendai."

''Sendai Seri Nabe'' is a dish of ''Sendai Seri Nabe'' where the root-based Japanese parsley is tossed in a soup stock with a dashi flavor and eaten when it is lightly cooked. It is a local autumn tradition, where you will be surprised by the aroma of the crispy and chewy Japanese parsley and the unexpected taste of the root. There are no rules for the toppings or the ingredients for the stock, except for the one thing: ''Eat the rooted seri in a hot pot.'' Each restaurant offers their own ingenuity, such as keeping it simple with just konbu dashi or adding generous amounts of toppings such as chicken and duck.

Actually, people may not be aware that seri nabe is a relatively new local dish that has become popular over the past ten years or so. The instigator is a parsley farmer from Natori City, a major producer of Sendai parsley. ''Sendai seri grown in a healthy manner with clean water is delicious and edible down to the roots.I wanted more people to know about its taste,'' so I approached the owner of a small restaurant in Sendai City for advice. This is how "Sendai Seri Nabe" was born.

If you bring the soup to a boil and dip the roots in it for about 10 seconds, and the leaves for a few seconds, they are ready to eat. Although it's a simple dish, you can eat up a heaping amount of seri in no time. The unique flavor of seri, softened by cooking, spreads throughout your mouth, and combined with the pleasant texture, you can't help but eat it with your chopsticks.