Weird food mashups worth eating in NYC

Food purists, avert your eyes. The following edible creations combine well-known foods to create hybrids that are, depending on one’s perspective, glorious or heretical. The combinations are sometimes logical: burgers and fries, for example, or doughnuts and ice cream. Sometimes, they’re bewildering (say, fish and churros, or pastrami and egg rolls).

Cereal Bagel at Bagels R Us: This Staten Island bagel shop doesn’t think you should have to choose between two of the world’s favorite breakfast staples—so they’ve combined them by topping their handmade bagels with cereals like Lucky Charms, Fruity Pebbles and Cap’n Crunch. Slather your bagel with cereal-infused cream cheese to maximise the breakfast flavour and the sugar buzz.

Ramen Taco at Ichiba Ramen: You needn’t master chopsticks to enjoy this ramen remix. Ichiba’s tacos (exclusively available on Taco Tuesday) contain ramen noodles both within their fried nori shells and tucked below their other fillings. Take a bite out of either the tonkotsu taco, with pork belly and kimchi slaw, or the poké version, with tuna, avocado and fish roe.

Cruff at Stuffed Ice Cream: Inventing new ways to eat ice cream—as a roll, between funnel cakes, wrapped in a waffle—has turned into an NYC pastime. At this aptly named shop, doughnuts are the latest ice cream-vehicle: made in-house, stuffed with the cold stuff and decked out with toppings like gummy bears, coconut and mochi. “Cruff” combines the words “cream” and “stuff,” much as the treat itself combines a doughnut and ice cream.

Burgrito at Burgrito’s: Burgers and fries are used to sharing a plate, but this mashup puts them in even closer quarters wrapped in a tortilla. Burgrito’s namesake dish is a deconstructed bacon cheeseburger and fries, served up burrito-style. It’s a real time-saver from having to use a separate hand for the fries.

Fish Churros at Sunken Hundred: When it comes to this mashup, think more free-form fish and chips than cinnamon-sugar-encrusted fish dessert. The savory snack, inspired by the traditional Welsh dish of roast hake, is made from salted hake trimmings that are piped out and deep fried churro-style, ready for dipping in tartar sauce.

Everything Doughnuts at Flex Mussels: The everything bagel is a fundamental NYC food staple, and Flex Mussels owner Alexandra Shapiro has brought its signature seasoning—sesame seeds, poppy seeds, onion, garlic and salt—to our other favourite carb with a hole. The resulting creation has a fluffy, fried dough texture and a variety of cream-cheese-based fillings.

The Original Ramen Burger at Ramen Shack: The ramen burger got its start at Smorgasburg before moving to its current brick-and-mortar location in 2016. Its inventor, ramen guru Keizo Shimamoto, now serves the “OG” ramen burger—with angus beef, scallion, arugula and shoyu sauce—plus veggie, pulled pork and breakfast burger iterations at his Queens shack.

Katz’s Pastrami Egg Roll at RedFarm: A Brooklynite restaurateur and a dim sum chef came up with this appetizer, an arguably unholy union between a classic New York deli sandwich and a Chinese takeout staple. With a mustard dipping sauce and generous meat-to-wrapper ratio, this mashup does justice to the piled-high Katz’s original.