A Japanese restaurant with a Norwegian head chef? That's certainly not very traditional. Luckily, neither is Nobu Matsuhisa. In fact, Nobu's executive chef in the city, Oyvind Naesheim (left) has done so well, Nobu-san has added one of his locally inspired sushi creations to the menu of his other restaurants in North America and London. Naesheim's dish, hirame sashimi with XO salsa, tops a piece of fresh halibut (hirame) with a lighter version of the Chinese conpoy (dried scallop) and chilli sauce. Like a true artist, the Scandinavian's inspired innovation was alcohol-fuelled.

'When I first came to Hong Kong, I had drinks with a local friend, and his father made his own XO sauce at home,' Naesheim recalled. 'I tried it and liked it so much, he and I finished the whole jar that night. We kept putting it on some toast as we were drinking.'

After that, he was consumed with the idea of making an XO variation suitable for Japanese cuisine. The result is a new signature dish for Nobu's non-traditional clientele. 'Nobu wants all his restaurants to be different, so the LA one is different than the New York, and New York is different than Hong Kong.'