Inside this roll hides a four-hundred-year circle, and the circle passes through three cities.

Let the first be Lisbon: in the sixteenth century, Portuguese sailors and missionaries carried their habit of flour-coated frying to Japan. The second is Edo: Japan took the technique, thinned the batter, cut the timing to seconds, and turned it into tempura. The third is Los Angeles: four hundred years later, Japanese masters brought sushi to America, and there, at the end of the 1960s, the avocado-filled, inside-out California Roll was born.

Then someone dipped America’s roll into the batter Japan had learned from Portugal. The circle closed; history caught its own tail.

On the palate, the long story is over quickly: California’s familiar balance, kani, avocado and cucumber, arrives from inside a hot, crisp armor. A flavor known cold, served hot, surprises gently at the first bite; by the second, surprise has given way to appetite.

They say history does not repeat itself. In the kitchen it does; and it usually tastes better the second time around.