The (culinary) world goes topsy-turvy with mint chocolate chip sushi and fish-flavoured doughnuts.

When it comes to food, Japanese chefs are famous for taking foreign dishes and adding their own delicious touches to them, even if it isn’t the most traditional rendering. Only recently, I was surprised to discover Scotch eggs in my local supermarket. Anticipating a blast of nostalgia, I was disappointed to discover that they weren’t dry as bone and the meat actually tasted like meat, so entirely unlike the ones I ate at countless childhood picnics. This time though, the tables have been turned as an ice cream parlour in the U.S. has taken inspiration from Japan’s culinary pride and joy, sushi.

At a distance (and maybe squinting a little), it might look like the raw fish original but it’s actually ice cream, courtesy of the New York ice cream parlour Gelarto, in the East Village, where they use custom moulds to form the sushi shapes from any of their 46 or so flavours of gelato Italian ice cream. The sushi also comes with a pair of chopsticks, so you might even fool yourself into thinking you’re having sushi, at least until the moment the cold, creamy goodness reaches your lips.

▼ You have to eat this sushi even faster than the real thing.

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According to some of those who have tried the ice cream sushi, it doesn’t taste like fish and wasabi, but of deliciously rich mint chocolate chip, cherry cream and salted caramel. Unlike some example of the real thing, it also doesn’t move of its own accord.

▼ Less California roll, more Alaska roll?

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Gelarto aren’t the only New York establishment to have put a Western spin on sushi. Pokee, another restaurant in the city, has been making sushi doughnuts, although these are a little closer to the original since they do at least have fish on them, as the restaurant’s main focus is on Hawaiian-style poke raw fish salads.

We’ll just have to hope that some of these, and maybe America’s sushi “burrito,” make their way to Japan so we can try some for ourselves. In the meantime we’ll have to make do with common or garden sushi, and scotch eggs.

Sources: Instagram/@gelartonyc, Instagram/@pokeenyc
Featured image: Instagram/@gelartonyc
[ Read in Japanese ]