Indianised sushi?

THE FOOD CLUB

We did it to Italian food - sprinkled our pasta with peperoncini and added chicken tikka to pizza.

We did it to Chinese food: don't believe me? Just try Gobhi Manchurian and see for yourself. And now, we are turning the great

Indian genius to none other than sushi.

It's a curious choice for Indianisation. It is one of the most subtle items of Japanese cuisine. Kaiseki, that grand banquet of haute Japanese food, came into the country but hardly caused a stir. Teppanyaki was introduced too; you'd think it had a fighting chance of making it big, being something of an imported tandoori grill, but it continues to be niche.

Then The Oberoi New Delhi started a sushi bar, and the world was suddenly a different place. Suddenly, everybody and his uncle wanted to be seen enjoying a product that had everything to do with snobbery.

It helped that there was something for everybody "" Jains, lovers of spice, aficionados of seafood, even raw fish eaters. That bout with sushi at The Oberoi continues undiminished after a year and a half.

During that span of time, the great dining out public as well as a handful of restaurateurs discovered one important factor about sushi: it didn't have to be about raw fish alone.

Chef Hiroyuki Hashimoto, sous chef at the Shangri La, New Delhi, shows off his skill to me. After whetting my appetite with a tiny plate of sea urchin with an unmistakable tang of sea spray, he gives me cooked eel sushi flavoured with yuzu "" that quintessentially Far Eastern citrus fruit.

Next comes a foie gras nigiri. Dusted with tempura flour, it's sizzled for a few seconds on a teppanyaki grill, so that one side is faintly crisp with the flour, and the underside is warm and melts in the mouth.

Subtle flavours married with irreproachably fresh ingredients would seem to be the underpinnings of sushi, but Indian diners look for the familiarity quotient too.

Which is why chef Hashimoto has devised the Maharaja roll with teppanyaki-grilled shavings of lamb and a crab stick rolled with rice and a nori sheet. He's trying to work out a biryani-flavoured rice as his next step.

Elsewhere in the city, Laidbackwaters, the seafood restaurant and lounge, serves a platter of sushi that is almost entirely executive chef Oishi Neogi's brainchild. Cooked shrimps have been butterflied, filled with sticky rice and topped with a garnish of bell peppers; shrimp mousse has been filled with crunchy vegetables and rolled into a mould.

Kylin, a lounge bar with an oriental flavour, has received such a thundering applause for its sushi "" the rice here is vinegared to a far greater degree than the Japanese norm "" that they've hurriedly reprinted the menu, adding two pages of additions that include cooked seafood and fresh fruits.

Indian sushi, unlike its Japanese variant, is rapidly metamorphosing into a variety of ingredients that are attractive to behold yet safe for the most squeamish diner.