Oms/b

Omusubi, or Japanese rice balls stuffed with various fillings, are the perfect picnic food. They're much more portable than sandwiches, since the fillings are tightly packed inside the rice. The rice also protects the perishable fillings against the heat. Usually, omusubi are filled with salmon, tuna, cod roe, or salty plum paste. However, a Manhattan cafe, Oms/b, offers a Baskin-Robbins-like menu of omusubi flavors. Bored of salmon flakes? Try the chili mayo-coated fried shrimp popcorn on chive rice. Tired of tuna? Maybe you should order the marinated ribs on lettuce-wrapped rice, or the buttery sauteed scallops and asparagus on peppered rice with spinach.

Oms/b also serves a variety of refreshing summer desserts. (However, you'll want to eat these right up, as they're too perishable for a picnic.) So, after you've downed a few omusubi, you'll want a nutty black and white sesame panna cotta topped with a blackberry, or a Japanese citrus cheesecake, or a creamy jasmine orange mousse.

Oms/b: 156 East 45th St., (212) 922-9788. The cafe closes at 7:30 p.m.; for the greatest variety of omusubi, make sure to arrive much earlier.