The sushi push pop trend has arrived in Toronto
For better or worse
Sushi has gone through many permutations: pizza, tacos, burritos. There has been the revival of minimalist Edomae sushi, which has been counterbalanced by so-called chaos rolls—truffle toro with smoked osetra caviar and yuzu spheres, anyone?
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And now, the newest sushi trend—one we never saw coming—has landed in Toronto.
We give you: the push pop sushi roll, inspired by the Push Pop, the plastic-encased candy sucker from the ’80s that is likely responsible for a few landfills. In this case, however, it involves a cylindrical container layered with sushi fixings. It was officially born online—not in a sushi house or anywhere near Japan—during the pandemic, when we were all slowly losing our minds.
The trend kicked off at Suka Sushi in New York late last year, where it attracted Cronut-level lineups. Now, it has arrived in our fair city—fashionably late, as always—at Omai Rice Bar in Baldwin Village.
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Omai’s sushi push pops come in a variety of combinations, including classics like bluefin tuna with avocado and cucumber as well as other, more unexpected pairings, like pork belly with pickles and Korean slaw. Each one comes with a vial of soy sauce attached to the side. Empty its salty contents into the rice shaft, then use the now-empty vial as a plunger to push the contents of the cylinder up, bite by bite. Up it rises, like a fishy phoenix.
Cue a country-wide eye roll from Japan? Surprisingly not. It appears as though two locations of Unatoto, a budget-friendly Japanese chain specializing in eel, have gotten in on the questionable trend.
Erin Hershberg is a freelance writer with nearly two decades of experience in the lifestyle sector. She currently lives in downtown Toronto with her husband and two children.
