Vanilla, chocolate or porcini?

THINGS are looking a little upside-down on menus lately. Is that really ice cream on the appetizer list?

It is, indeed. Chefs are scooping out the icy treat as starters -- but with a decidedly savory spin. Think fennel, smoked corn or even Japanese rice.

At Bastide, chef Ludovic Lefebvre shapes a quenelle of sushi-rice ice cream over tuna sashimi, topping the dish with an emulsion of ginger and honey, a splash of soy sauce and warm wisps of fried onion. It’s the French chef’s nod to the craze for all things Japanese.

“People love sushi, but I can’t do sushi at Bastide,” says Lefebvre. But he can make ice cream, so he mixes sushi rice with milk and vinegar, then freezes it before running it in the Pacojet -- an extremely efficient Swiss machine that whips up ice cream in a jiffy.

For another starter, Lefebvre pairs porcini mushroom ice cream with seared foie gras crusted with walnuts.

Apparently, he’s not the only one who hears foie gras screaming for ice cream.

Unlike Lefebvre, though, they’re answering the call with sweet flavors. At Cafe del Rey, chef Frank Fronda sears foie gras and plates it with a frozen port custard. At Providence, Michael Cimarusti makes a foie gras parfait with a Black Mission fig granita. Eddy Shin of Chapter Eight Steakhouse & Dance Lounge mixes up some butternut squash and pink peppercorn ice cream to go with seared foie gras. And Patina’s Theo Schoenegger finishes sauteed foie gras with a Pear William ice cream made from pear schnapps and pureed pears.

Schoenegger also has a fennel-Pernod ice cream for a mix of farmers market vegetables (raw, pickled and confit), and white truffle ice cream for a lobster salad. The latter, which is lightly sweetened, doesn’t actually contain any truffle, but is made with eggs that have been stored in a sealed container with white truffles. “After 24 to 48 hours,” he says, “the yolk has absorbed so much of the truffle it has a beautiful truffle perfume.”

And Providence makes a yuzu granita to go with its starters of kampachi sashimi or scallop carpaccio on its frequently changing menu.

The ice-cream-as-appetizer phenomenon is inevitable, Schoenegger says, given that pastry chefs have been pulling savory flavors into desserts. It was only a matter of time before things flipped in the other direction.

And now, ice cream seems to be creeping toward the middle of the menu too. At Cafe del Rey, Fronda recently added this main course: smoked duck breast with smoked corn ice cream.

But why stop there? At Bastide, the cheese course features a napoleon of toasted baguette layered with triple-cream Brie and topped with -- you guessed it -- Brie ice cream.

Leslee Komaiko

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Small bites

* Sushi Sasabune, the hole in the wall sushi joint known for its pristine fish, has moved from its modest Sawtelle Boulevard digs of some 12 years to the old Todai space in West L.A. Chef-owner Nobi Kusuhara cited the former location’s small size and lack of parking as the main reasons for the westward move.

Sushi Sasabune, 12400 Wilshire Blvd., West L.A.; (310) 268-8380.

* Villa Sorriso in Old Town Pasadena has started Sunday brunch service. Offered in conjunction with radio station 92.3-FM (a.k.a. Hot 92 Jamz), the buffet brunch, priced at $25 per person features omelet and carving stations, a selection of crudo, sometimes described as Italian sashimi, and a DJ spinning old school hits. A $6 supplement gets you a bottomless glass of sparkling wine or strawberry Champagne.

Villa Sorriso, 168 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena; (626) 7932233.