Sushi is, well, the new sushi. Low-fat, low-cal, high in the benefits of a fishy diet. But it went off the front-burner for a while, and not just because you don’t cook it. Trendspotters were focusing on fusion food.

Surprise! It’s baaack. Reinvented. Sushi is fused.

Down in Atlantic Highlands, Julia’s Restaurant (www.juliasrestaurant.com) fuses sushi with Italian food. More than sixty kinds of sushi and sashimi appear on the menu before the Italian appetizers. You can chow down on a Tiger Roll, and move on to the Mozzarella Napoleon and Stuffed Rigatoni. You’ll save on your sushi if you print out the coupon, at http://www.wineanddinenj.com/dinner_deals.

If you love Brazilian Barbeque (all you can eat), you’ll also love the sushi being served by our friends at Rio 22 in Union (www.rio22.net). The presentation is fabulous. Like spin art, Rio makes your sushi plate a kaleidoscope of color and taste. Rio’s fans have even voted the sushi bar here among the best in the state. They’ve got our vote too!

At tiny Bistro En (www.bistro-en.com) in Teaneck, there is truly something for every taste. It’s described as a French-Japanese tapas place. The eclectic menu fuses French and Italian country cooking with Spanish tapas and sushi starters.

At the bubble-licious Swanky Bubbles (www.swankybubbles.com) in Cherry Hill—the first champagne bar in the state, treat your date to a maki roll and wash it all down with Dom Perignon.

All this is good news for sushi lovers who can truly tell the freshest filet from a stale sashimi. We’re just waiting for our favorite drive-through to put sushi on the menu. And yes, we’ll have some fries with that…

We’re used to walking for charity. But this spring, it’s cars and horses that are going the distance for two important causes.

The folks at BMW (www.bmwusa.com) will send a dollar to Susan G. Komen for the Cure (www.komen.org) for every mile you test drive at a dealership. It’s the 11th year of this fantasy test drive. They’ve raised more than ten million dollars so far in the fight against breast cancer.

There’s no obligation to buy the car—though we’d love to! To mark the event, a fleet of silver Beemers featuring a pink ribbon on the hood is crisscrossing the country from dealer to dealer. It rolls into New Jersey on May 11 at Flemington BMW. Other stops include Hunterdon BMW and Princeton BMW. You can sign up to drive, and pick your model car, on the BMW website or call 1-877-4-A-DRIVE. Show up, roll down the top, and take off.

New Jersey’s equestrian elite will also scale new heights, to help create a treatment center for autism.

The Garden State Horse Show (www.gardenstatehorseshow.org) is the highest rated and most prestigious show in the state.

This year, GSHS’s biggest event is also a fundraiser for an autism center at Paterson’s Barnert Hospital. The International Brain Research Foundation (www.ibrfinc.org) is sponsoring the cause.

The $50,000 Jumping Grand Prix is on May 12—that’s when the top riders and horses in the Northeast fly over giant obstacles. For a $50 donation, you’ll lock in a great seat under the tent.

The show will also donate its total gate revenues from that day to the center. The Garden State Horse Show is held at the Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta.

Pick your pleasure—four legs or four wheels—and save the date. You’ll have fun and make a difference.

We’ve found a brand of jeans that fit like butt-er. Know what we mean?

Not Citizens, or Joes, or Sevens. Try on a pair of Red Engine Jeans (www.redenginejeans.com) if you can find them.

The California-made denims are softer and stretchier, and somewhat low-rise, but not in a hurtful way. They’ll wrap your behind into a juicy bundle, pack in your post-partum pouch, and slim your thighs into legs you won’t recognize as your own.

You see, unlike some of the other high-end designer jeans for the severely food deprived, Red Engines are forgiving of our mortal sins. You won’t have to stuff yourself into the package. The jeans mold to your shape.

Oprah put Cambios (www.cambioamerica.com) on the map . She was right, except those flattering high-waisted jeans put comfort before style. No teenage daughter would not be caught dead in Cambios. Not so, with our little Engines that could.

You will have to search for your new jeans, and pay the usual designer price. ($175+ a pair). They were not in a sea of designer denim at Neiman Marcus. The clerks at Nordstrom had never heard of them. None of our other favorite department stores carry them.

We found our Red Engines at Finishing Touches in Denville, a great boutique where they always know what fits. With a twenty percent discount to boot. There is a list of other local retailers carrying the brand on the company’s website.

Ladies, start your engines!

At Neiman Marcus (www.neimanmarcus.com) in Short Hills this past weekend, mothers and daughters gathered in a primordial ritual of female bonding, otherwise known as a “Prom Event.”

The pressure is on this year, because basic prom fashion—solid colors, long lengths and breast foot forward—are no longer a given.

Virtually any style, any length, any color is fine. It’s all left to the imagination of anxious mothers and daughters, each with a set of different ideas.

“Do you like this dress?” asked one mother anxiously. Her daughter barely glanced up.

“I’m not going to a communion!”

A hired DJ pumped out a rock beat and helpers dished out chocolate flowers as the various generations ogled the bewildering array of styles, ranging from the traditional goddess gowns to short, strapless and high-waisted dresses with trapeze skirts and all manner of patterns, belts, and bows.

Our fashionable friend and occasional business partner Maria Cucciniello (www.thehipevent.com), who was running the show for N-M, offered a roadmap, saying jewel tones are hot. Wearing a short dress for the prom is acceptable… because “it’s more fun.”

When finally “I don’t like it!” became “I like it,” the teens grabbed armfuls of brightly colored dresses in eye-popping patterns with a multitude of necklines and patterns, then marched to the dressing rooms, moms left to scout the aisles and console each other.

They will, we know, eventually find the dress. And since anything goes, they can hardly go wrong. The teens will find their own style… with a little help from mom.

“This is too low cut? Why don’t you just wear pajamas?”

And so it goes.

Taste rules this weekend.

Bring your greetings to Asbury Park on Saturday, and help celebrate the seaside resort’s 110th anniversary with Taste of Asbury Park, a food and wine festival featuring dishes from 15 top restaurants in town plus wines from seven local wineries. It’s at Convention Hall, 1-4 p.m. Tickets $25 in advance or $35 at the door. (732) 502-9310, www.cityofasburypark.com.

Westfall Winery in Montague celebrates five years on the vine by pairing appetizers to its new 2006 whites and its 2005 Cab. Saturday and Sunday, 12-5 p.m., and it’s free. (973) 293-3428, www.westfallwinery.com.

Or, try the British Beer Tasting Dinner at Cape May’s historic Mad Batter Restaurant. Four courses, four different brews, $55. Friday at 7:30 p.m. 609-884-5970, www.madbatter.com.

And now, for some non-gustatory kinds of taste, like…

…in music. One of the world’s great classical violinists, Itzhak Perlman is in concert at the Bergen Performing Arts Center Sunday in Englewood, 3 p.m. Tickets $35–$125. (201) 227-1030, or go to www.bergenpac.org.

…in antiques. Get ye valuable (ye hope) olde thinges to the antique appraisal fair at Old Lafayette Village (www.lafayettevillageshops.com), Lafayette. It runs Sunday 1-4 p.m. Pre-registration is required, (973) 579-2382.

…in wood sculpture. Saturday is the last day for a Wood Turner’s Exhibition, highlighting artists that take the craft of working the lathe to the level of fine art. Perkins Center for the Arts, Collingswood. (800) 387-5226, www.perkinscenter.org.

…in, uh, sneakers? Well, your teens will know. Mischa Barton, formerly of The O.C., comes to Nordstrom (www.nordstrom.com) at Garden State Plaza Saturday 1-3 p.m. to autograph no-longer-dowdy, newly-hip and always comfortable Keds casual shoes. (201) 843-1122.