“The next morning Zoran began by demonstrating a popular piece of American sushi called a crunchy roll. But he was emphatic that this was not Japanese food.

‘Anything that’s greasy or oily isn’t part of traditional sushi,’ Zoran warned. ‘That’s all Western influence.’

The funny thing was, sometimes Japanese tourists would come into Hama Hermosa and order the American rolls. The California roll and a few other American rolls had been adopted at low-brow or “American-style”, sushi shops in Japan, and people had taken to calling avocado “the toro of the fields” because of its similarities to fatty tuna. But many other American rolls weren’t available in Japan. The tourists from Japan love them.

More American sushi rolls are built on a basic inside-out roll foundation, like a California roll. But as soon as Zoran flipped over his pad of nori and rice, things took a dramatic new turn.

Onto the nori, Zoran squirted a glob of mayonnaise laced with red chile. On that he laid two straight shrimp that had been deep friend in heavy batter. Next was cucumber. The only thing that was Japanese was the bright orange stick of pickled burdoch root for extra crunch; it was loaded with dye and MSG. Zoran squeezed the roll closed. He tossed it around in a tray of “crunchies” - bits of deep-fried batter - until it was covered. He sliced it, squirted on some sugary saue, and held it up on a plate”

— Trevor Corson, The Story of Sushi