Photographs of a local supermarket selling Chinese roasted meat sushi have baffled and bemused internet users throughout Hong Kong.

Taste, a chain of supermarkets owned by the company behind Park’n Shop, has begun offering customers something that looks remarkably like sushi – except with slices of soy sauce chicken and roast duck instead of the textbook slithers of raw fish.

Chinese roasted meat sushi
Chinese roasted meat sushi. Photo: Face Magazine Facebook

However, Taste has not actually labelled their invention as sushi. Instead, they have given it a more humble name: roast meat rice.

Chinese roasted meat sushi
Chinese roasted meat sushi. Photo: Apple Daily

Bizarre as it may look, however, this is far from the first time our city has given life to delightfully eccentric varieties of “Hong Kong-style sushi”.

A few years ago, the infamous Ming General Japanese Sushi Restaurant opened its doors in Dragon Centre, introducing Hong Kongers to eccentric creations such as meat floss sushi, deep-fried scallop sushi, fruit salad sushi, and of course their unforgettable/digestible pièce de résistance: red bean sushi.

Red bean sushi Ming general
Red bean sushi a la Ming General.

The Ming General folded in 2014 to literally no one’s surprise. Taste’s char siu sushi has revived web users’ fond memories of the sushi chain they all loved to hate.

Internet users over roasted meat sushi

An internet user called Calvin Chau said it was “ridiculous”, adding: “I’ve lost my appetite after seeing it”.

Internet users over roasted meat sushi

Another internet user, however, supported the idea of the new fusion dish, asking why people can’t accept roast meat sushi when they already accept both sushi and sashimi rice dishes.

Eric is currently a Bachelor of Journalism student at the University of Hong Kong. Eric has his finger on the pulse of Hong Kong events and politics. His work has been published on The Guardian, Reuters and ABC News (America).