The world's best food mash-ups

Donut meet croissant. Noodles, meet hamburger. Now live happily ever after. Food fusions are exciting chefs all over the world. Here are eight courses of the best Frankenfoods.

Remember when you were a kid and you would put hot chips on a piece of white bread?

Who am I kidding - you still do it now, right?

That's a chip buttie, or a chip sandwich, and you probably didn't know at the time that you were making your very own food mash-up.

Yep, mashing up isn't just for potatoes anymore. It's when you take two foods that are perfectly excellent on their own, and combine them to make a new, delicious Frankenfood (like Frankenstein, the monster made up of different humans' parts, you see).

Here are a few of our favourites.

THE RAMEN BURGER

Where east meets west you'll find this bad boy: a ramen noodle hamburger.

New Yorkers queued for hours recently to get the first taste of this interesting hybrid: the marriage of ramen noodles and a hamburger.

Basically it's a burger with noodles as the bun.

"The burger is juicy and delicious," early adopter Kendrick Lo told the Huffington Post lining up for his first ramen burger.

"They cook it perfectly medium-rare and the ramen noodles work surprisingly well as a bun."

THE CRONUT

Adriano Zumbo has brought the cronut to Australia. Thanks, AZ.

This is another one that originated in New York earlier this year, when Soho baker Dominique Ansel decided a croissant and a donut were meant for each other.

Our best-known pastry genius Adriano Zumbo has brought the creation to Aussie shores by way of the Zonut.

The demand for Zonuts has already become legendary. When friends came to visit Sydney recently, they were heartbroken and hungry to discover the day's batch had sold out in half and hour.

THE CHIP BUTTIE

May contain traces of carbohydrates.

In the world of food mash-ups, this is literally a golden oldie.

An original Frankenfood, the chip buttie is a handful of delicious, golden fries stuffed between two pieces of bread (or one, folded over).

If you're a carbophobe, this is not the mash-up for you. Go stuff some kale into a stick of celery instead. See how much you like that.

(Note: The chip buttie also works with crisps, I reckon.)

TURDUCKEN

A poultry serving. 

So, you love poultry but you just can't choose which bird to serve for dinner.

Why stop at just turkey, or duck or chicken when you can stuff one right into the next and get the whole gamey trio on your fork at once?

The turducken is a de-boned chicken, stuffed into a de-boned duck, which is then stuffed into a de-boned turkey. Hence, turducken.

Still hungry? Add stuffing or sausage meat into the gaps, obviously.

THE ZINGER PIE

A match made in heaven but a calorie count made in hell. 

How many times have you been a little hung-over and you just can't decide between a two-piece feed or a meat pie?

At least once, right?

Well, your mates at KFC took the guess work out of the equation by playing matchmaker with their Zinger chicken and a pie crust.

Neither are particularly good for you, which is probably why you want it so badly.

CHIP FLAVOURED GELATO

And then the chips said to the ice cream, “Where have you been all my life?” 

Confession time: I don't live in Melbourne, but I regularly go to the Facebook page of a Melbourne-based gelato shop just to see what they're dreaming up this week.

The guys at N2 Extreme Gelato are visionaries, and this one has to go down as one of their most delicious Frankenfoods - chip flavoured ice cream.

I can't vouch for the taste yet, but A+ for creativity, gang.

Burger King in the States did something similarly salty-sweet for the mass market - the bacon sundae.

Not for the faint of heart. No really, this could destroy your ticker for good. 

OREOS INSIDE ANOTHER COOKIE

Maybe this is more like food cannibalism than a food mash-up. Whatever it is, we like it.

There's no such thing as too many cookies, and this is the recipe to prove it.

On the outside, a delicious and simple funfetti cookie. On the inside, an oreo.

You can make these at home.

Cookie monsters of the world rejoice. Two-for-one cookies.