• Oms/b

  156 East 45th Street, 212-922-9788

  Trust the Japanese to know exactly what it is you’re supposed to do with Spam. At Oms/b, the efficient female staff slice it into thick slabs, glue it on a puck-size rice cake with a dab of mayo, and then, with the delicate precision of a Kate’s Paperie gift wrapper, tie a pretty nori ribbon around it. That racy, nouveau model is just one of the delicious creations at this bento-box-size shop dedicated to omusubi, the variously stuffed or topped rice balls that are the Japanese-fast-food equivalent of a pizza slice. The shop’s more traditional—and portable—omusubi are triangular and filled with a modest amount of anything from spicy tuna salad to pickled plums, before they’re folded into a sheet of crisp seaweed that makes a handy, delicious wrapper.

From the 2004 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine