Ice cream with biscuits and ... kina?! Bizarre new dessert combo goes viral

In an age of mash-ups and culinary collaborations, of molecular gastronomy and experimental cuisine, it might seem as if there is no stone left unturned in the world of food.

Enter a new classic that combines some of this great nation's most-loved ingredients - and one polarising delicacy.

A photograph of the genre-defying dessert was shared to the popular Aotearoa Kai Gatherers Facebook page with the caption: "Something to try...it's good too".

At first glance, the building blocks of the dish are obvious: vanilla ice cream and Super Wine biscuits.

So far, so delicious.

But what is that quivering mass perched on the ice cream?

A chunky caramel? Perhaps some exotic fruit?

The truth is almost too deliciously perverse to contemplate. It is kina.

Photo / Facebook

The online response was immediate, as commenters weighed in with a mix of revulsion, delight and expectant drooling.

"I'd never waste my kinas like that," said one commenter who appeared to be shunning the innovation before dramatically pivoting to: "but I mean I wouldn't not try it."

Others diagnosed the source of the original poster's inspiration.

"You're either hapū or stoned," one man said.

"This is straight-up munchie food".

Some were not convinced. "If I was a kina, I would be offended," said one.

"Is that French vanilla?" one asked, "French vakina," another suggested.

But for some, the picture threw the doors of perception wide open, transported through cyberspace to new vistas of taste and texture.

"Why have I not done this…. Man, I'm hungry now," one man wrote.

"Bitta crunch bitta sweet bitta salty jelly kina yummmmmmmo," another woman dreamed.

So, would you try it?

This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.