‘Kawaii’ in NYC!

The restaurant serves ‘cute’ food items like pink rice macarons. Pics/instagram

Eating fish is rarely so cute, colourful or creatively delivered. Earlier this week, Sushidelic became Manhattan's only conveyor belt sushi joint as it began formally serving diners off its already TikTok-viral food mover.

The restaurant is a creation of Japanese artist Sebastian Masuda, widely known as the godfather of kawaii culture, who previously installed a nine-foot Hello Kitty statue in Midtown and founded the since-shuttered but still-beloved Kawaii Monster Cafe.

Like the cafe, Sushidelic's menu includes offerings that appear more art objects than food items, but here Masuda has retrofitted the concept to appeal to New Yorkers, "a taste of Harajuku, Japan adapted for Soho."

"Japan is a lot more conservative," he explained to the New York Post of his "new-generation sushi restaurant," adding "This restaurant wouldn't be popular in Tokyo." It offers an opportunity to be immersed in kawaii culture's adorable aesthetic without compromising on its flavour.

The restaurant's set menu comprises dishes like pink rice and macarons and a parfait with a soy sauce syringe. All food is served beneath three enormous, revolving resin cats, coming out on the conveyor belt amid plated sculptures ranging from a button-eyed teddy bear to a glossy red stiletto.

Also in the works at the restaurant is an à la carte menu, takeaway "sushi candy" purchasable via kiosks, more art for the walls and Masuda merchandise - additions that promise to add even more options and colour to an already hallucinatory eatery that, unlike many other "immersive" NYC offerings, actually takes its shtick all the way.

Thermonator!

This robot dog has impressive flamethrowing pyrotechnics

An American company recently unveiled its latest product, Thermonator, the world's first flamethrower-wielding robot dog. Robot dogs have been around for a while now, and in countries like China, they're actually competing against actual pooches. But it turns out that these four-legged robots can be more than lifeless pets.

Throw Flame, a US-based company specialising in flamethrowers, recently showcased the world's first flamethrower-equipped robot dog. Dubbed "Thermonator", it comes with a high-performance flamethrower mounted on its back which allows it to shoot flames up to nine metres in front of it. According to the Throw Flame website, the Thermonator allows users to remotely "shoot flames anywhere you want!"

Out of date but not too late

A thrifty mum is beating the UK's cost-of-living crisis by disregarding sell-and-use-by dates of food and using her intuition to make delicious meals instead - saving at least £560 (Rs 58,416) a year. Dr Marianne Trent, 41, a clinical psychologist and founder of Good Thinking Psychological Services from Coventry, said she disregards how most people assess the fitness of their food, instead urging them "to use your eyes and your nose".

Vanilla sees the sky

A touching video caught the first time that Vanilla the chimpanzee, a 29-year-old survivor of New York's infamous Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP), saw the open sky, after arriving at the Save the Chimps sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida. Vanilla had never been outside of a five-foot-square cage or a garage-sized enclosure until she moved in - and by the looks of it, she is spellbound by her new ape abode.

Out of school

An Italian professor named Cinzia Paolina De Lio was recently fired for around 20 years of absence out of 24 years of service at schools near Venice. She had been absent from the classroom for most of her two-and-a-half decades as a school professor.

Croc stock

A ramen restaurant in Yunlin, Taiwan, recently unveiled its latest menu entry-Godzilla Ramen, a bowl of ramen soup with a braised crocodile leg sticking out. The owner of the restaurant learned how to cook crocodile soup during a trip to Thailand.

Resisting a rest

Thai Ngoc, an 80-year old Vietnamese farmer, has been making news headlines since it was reported that he does not need any sleep to lead a happy, active life. Born in 1942, Ngoc claims that he came down with a severe fever at age 20, and even though he survived, it left him unable to sleep again.