Ingredients: Rice, seaweed, smoked salmon, cream cheese, cucumber

Preparation: Inside-out

Popularity: Moderate, mostly because there’s no centralized recipe

As with many Americanized versions of sushi, it’s tough to nail down the New York Roll to one specific recipe. In fact, it’s tough to nail down one specific ingredient.

Some versions are made with smoked salmon, some are made with apple, some go with the contents of a bagel, some are close to a California Roll, only made in reverse. In fact, even finding a picture of a New York Roll is a hard thing to do.

For our money, the version of New York Roll that makes the most sense is a ‘bagelized’ recipe. We go with smoked salmon (add the skin if you like barbecue as a flavor), cream cheese, cucumber, and perhaps a little avocado thrown in so it’s not too cheesy.

Around the outside, sure, go with a smattering of sesame seeds, and maybe garnish with a thin slice of apple… since… you know… New York… ‘Big Apple’…

Sometimes schmaltz is a good thing.

Of course, you could always add steroids, in honor of New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens… 

Ingredients: Rice, seaweed, smoked salmon, cucumber, avocado, cream cheese (optional), wasabi paste (optional)

Preparation: Standard

Popularity: Moderate to low

Depending on where you are, the recipe for a smoked salmon roll will vary. Most sushi houses will put smoked salmon together with cream cheese, to make a dish that’s almost a bagel in nature.

But the more exotic sushi establishments will sometimes add wasabi paste to the mix – a hotter, but altogether incredible food experience, as the bite of the wasabi mixes well with the tang of the salmon. 

Variations on this theme sometimes include smoked salmon wrapped around the outside of the roll, while others still go with the inside-out preparation method, of rice on the outside, seaweed inside that, and the rest of the dish in the center. 

Not a classic Japanese favorite by any stretch, but I’ll have six to go!

Ingredients: Rice, seaweed, cream cheese, scallions, smoked salmon, cucumber, avocado, sometimes onion

Preparation: Inside-out

Popularity: Moderate 

Named after the home of Philly cream cheese, this Americanized sushi dish would almost be an hors d’oeuvre, if not for the seaweed and rice.

Made inside-out (or in the Urumaki style, as such sushi is known), and usually topped with sesame seeds or flying fish roe, the cream cheese replaces the usual Japanese mayonnaise in this mild dish, with the flavor of the smoked salmon making its presence felt in no uncertain terms.