Miso

Miso is a foodstuff made of fermented soybeans, used in making miso soup.

Miso can be written in Chinese characters as . This usage is a peculiar one. The first character means 'flavour' but the second means 'noisy'. The characters appear to have been chosen for their sound. This usage is found in the following sign:

Kara miso Salty miso

However, it is probably more common to write miso in hiragana, as in the following sign:

Miso yakiniku teishoku Miso roast meat set meal

In restaurants, it is also common to write words in katakana, as in the following:

Nasu miso-itame teishoku Miso-fried eggplant set meal

What is interesting in this case is that all three examples come from outside the same restaurant!

A Google search in August 2003 reveals the following distribution of usage:

Form	No. of occurrences
	340,000
	227,000
	85,900

The katakana form often also has the meaning 'key point' or 'nub'.