{"id":1911,"date":"2025-08-31T18:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T01:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=1911"},"modified":"2025-08-31T18:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T01:00:07","slug":"why-does-this-sushi-restaurant-serve-raw-tuna-in-an-ice-cream-cone%e3%80%90taste-test%e3%80%91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=1911","title":{"rendered":"Why does this sushi restaurant serve raw tuna in an ice cream cone?\u3010Taste test\u3011"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Totomaru shatters our expectations, but can they win our hearts?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In Japan, kaitenzushi\/conveyor belt sushi<\/strong> chains tend to be a little more creative and less bound by tradition than more formal sushi restaurants. Even still, our Japanese-language reporter Natsuno Futon<\/strong> was immensely startled, yet incredibly intrigued, by what she saw at a kaitenzushi restaurant during her recent trip back to her hometown in Gifu Prefecture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Totomaru<\/strong> is a local chain with about two dozen branches, mostly in Aichi Prefecture but also with locations in Gifu and Shizuoka. They\u2019ve got a reputation for outstanding freshness and flavor, so Natsuno always makes a point of eating there at least once when she\u2019s back home visiting friends and family.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Staring off with some more or less standard fish, everything was as delicious as Natsuo remembered it being. Since this was her first visit in a while, though, she decided to also peruse the menu of limited-time summer dishes, such as the seared salmon with mirin lees and yuzu zest<\/strong>, which was both original and outstanding.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At one point, the sound of a taiko drum rang out, signaling the start of a warayaki cooking session<\/strong>. Warayaki is a style of cooking in which rice straw is burned to produce intense flames, over which katsuo (bonito) is seared.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But as attention-grabbing as the warayaki performance was, it still didn\u2019t match the eyeball-pulling power of this menu item which had Natsuno asking\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026wait, is that ice cream cone sushi!?!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, that really is minced tuna scooped into the cone<\/strong>, and not some sort of strawberry or peach ice cream. However, since the actual criteria for something to be sushi is the presence of vinegared rice, it\u2019d be more accurate to call this ice cream cone sashimi, since the cone has no rice inside.<\/p>\n

Whether sushi or sashimi, though, Natsuno knew that she had to try this, so she punched in an order for it on her table\u2019s tablet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As odd as it looked in the menu photos, it was even more surreal to have it standing on the table.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So\u2026why?<\/strong> Because this is Totomaru\u2019s unorthodox take on yukke<\/strong>, which is itself Japan\u2019s riff on Korean cuisine\u2019s yukhoe. In sushi restaurants, yukke refers to minced tuna served with raw egg yolk, negi (green onion), and shiso (Japanese basil)<\/strong>. Instead of serving it in a bowl like most restaurants do, though, Totomaru brings it to you in a waffle cone for the 319-yen (US$2.15) Yukke Crush<\/strong>, as they call it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You do still get a plate, though, because the restaurant\u2019s recommended way to eat the Yukke Crush is first to tip the cone over\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026pour out the contents and make sure all the egg drizzles out\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026and then crush the cone with a spoon<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u25bc Ah, sorry, we mean \u201ccrush!\u201d the cone with a spoon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s up to you how thoroughly you want to pulverize the cone, depending on your desired texture, or perhaps how much pent-up stress you have at the moment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So how does it taste?<\/strong> Not bad. Honestly, with such an unusual guest ingredient, it wouldn\u2019t have been shocking if the Yukke Crush had turned out completely inedible. Maybe, though, because yukke itself is already a dish with a lot of strong, stimulating flavors, adding one more, even one as unexpected as this, can\u2019t completely derail it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It was noticeably sweeter than normal yukke, though. Without the presence of vinegared sushi rice (which has a touch of sweetness to it), yukke doesn\u2019t ordinarily light up too many of your sweet flavor receptors, and while the waffle cone wasn\u2019t sweet enough to qualify as a dessert without any ice cream in it, Natsuno\u2019s taste buds told her right away that this wasn\u2019t any ordinary yukke.<\/p>\n

On this day, Natsuno wasn\u2019t completely won over by the Yukke Crush, but she wouldn\u2019t advise anyone to avoid it either. With its deviations from the yukke norm, we can probably say that this is an acquired taste, and if it\u2019s one you\u2019re interested in acquiring, it\u2019s worth a shot, and even if you don\u2019t immediately fall in love with it, you\u2019ll probably never forget it either.<\/p>\n

Related: Totomaru location list<\/a><\/em>
\nPhotos \u00a9SoraNews24<\/em>
\n\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Totomaru shatters our expectations, but can they win our hearts? In Japan, kaitenzushi\/conveyor belt sushi chains tend to be a little more creative and less bound by tradition than more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}