There have been several publications highlighting the
opinions of chefs in the 50th regarding their take on the popularity
of a dish previously only known in the 50th; poke. Before I say anything else, let me get this off of my chest.
It is pronounced poh-keh which means to slice or cut. Poh-kee is Gumby’s orange
buddy which has nothing to do with cubed raw seafood. It’s tantamount to “food
experts” pronouncing those ethereal, light Japanese bread crumbs as pan-ko
instead of paahn-ko. I mean, if you’re an authority on food, please pronounce
it properly!
But getting back to the dish created by the original
Hawaiian settlers, the original poke
probably didn’t consist of anything more than cubed raw fish, likely aku (skipjack tuna), ahi (yellowfin tuna) or ono (wahoo) seasoned simply with
Hawaiian sea salt, limu (seaweed) and
inamona (roasted crushed kukui or candle nuts). Of course, once that initial wave of
immigrants from Spain and Portugal along with the myriad of labor from that
conglomerate known collectively as Asia arrived, so too did the green and round
onions, chili peppers along with soy and fish sauces and sesame oil to create
what collectively is known as today’s modern poke.
Still Poke?
Of course, in the birthplace of poke, you’ll find a
variety of non-red fleshed fish like au
(marlin) and salmon and even pollack, cod and milkfish… Of course the latter
fish species aren’t simply sliced or cut but are processed into surimi or those imitation crab legs.
However, the surimi is cut to
resemble chunks of crab and seasoned like your traditional poke. Poke also can
include cooked mussels, chopped raw crab or raw opihi (limpets) along with boiled and smoked slices of he’e (octopus) instead of fish.
In the last 20 years, probably one of the most popular poke is the spicy ahi poke which hardly resembles the original poke recipes as it contains mayonnaise spiked with chili oil and tobiko (flying fish roe) surrounding
cubes of fresh raw ahi. In fact
you’ll find green, black, yellow and orange tobiko
garnishing a wide variety of poke for
that added color and salty crunch. A recent poke
garnish is the use of chopped sea asparagus or sea beans which also provides a
salty crunch contrasting the texture of silky seafood.
Another poke variant over the same time span doesn’t
involve poke itself but how it is
served. Yes, the ubiquitous poke
bowl. What initially started as Hawaii’s
version of chirashi sushi where a large scoop of poke was simply placed over a large
scoop of white rice has now evolved to a full meal with poke plus additional condiments like raw or cooked vegetables,
various Japanese pickles, non-poke
proteins and I’ve even seen it topped with a sunny side egg with the poke playing second fiddle to all of the
other toppings. But it still is so popular that most establishments that sell poke also can create your version of a poke bowl.
Is it Cultural
Appropriation?
I personally don’t see any issue when one culture blends
the flavors of cooking techniques into their own culture. I mean, one of the
greatest culinary re-inventions started about 10 years ago when Chef Roy Choi
combined his ethnic Korean flavors with the traditional Mexican tacos and sold
them via food truck as Kogi BBQ revolutionizing both the food truck scene and
cross cultural cuisine with one fell swoop. Closer to home, the 20 plus year
movement known as Hawaii Regional Cuisine also blended the farm to table
approach originally embraced by European cuisine blended with both European and
Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Filipino techniques and flavors for our own
unique cuisine.
Again, my main issue is to respect what you’re trying to
emulate and that starts with the name of the dish. There are poke restaurants Stateside that use
“poki” and “poke” interchangeably explaining
the “poki” spelling as a way to get customers to pronounce it properly instead
of pronouncing it like bloke or joke. Well that’s still a joke as “poki” is
still Gumby’s orange colored equine buddy.
Poke also
started as and is still predominantly fresh raw seafood so please don’t try to
pass off less-than-fresh fish or crustaceans as poke. If it doesn’t smell like the ocean and more like your
aquarium filter, it can’t be served raw. And this is my own personal opinion
but even raw fish that has been treated with a tasteless, odorless USDA or FDA
approved gas can approach that less-than-pristine quality. Basically that gas
is carbon monoxide which binds to the myoglobin in tuna flesh maintaining that
rosy red color. Therefore even tuna that’s gone a little South can appear as
fresh as tuna caught the same day so the only true test is tasting and
smelling.
Lastly, though the poke
and poke bowl craze only seems to be
on the rise, please only call it poke
if it’s a close approximation of the original poke. Adding edamame and
sea salad on top the bowl. That’s ok. Searing thin slice of tuna and placing it
over salad greens. That’s a tataki
salad. Searing salmon and placing it over quinoa with avocado and corn. That’s
a Southwest quinoa salad with salmon. But not poke.
Closer to Home
Local social media group, Frolic Hawaii organized the
inaugural Honolulu PokeFest back in July featuring poke creations from 15 different local restaurants. Over 700
attendees participated in this inaugural event which had participants getting
bowls of plain or sushi rice then
visiting one or all fifteen vendors to create their own poke bowls. My favorites for the evening were Chef Jon Matsubara of
Bloomingdales Forty Carrots Maui Nui Venison Poke with crispy sun chokes, inamona
and umami mayo, Eating House 1849’s Poke and Poi with fresh ahi and poi, pickled ogo, onion, sea asparagus and chili pepper water and Tamashiro
Market’s Limu Ahi Poke.
Some of my favorite renditions of poke in no particular order starts with Chef Sam Choy’s original
Fried Poke served at his old Kaloko
restaurant (which closed years ago). He quickly wok seared fresh cubes of
marlin poke which I always enjoyed
over his fried rice with two sunny side eggs. The cubes of seared marlin were
akin to tataki sashimi yet maintained
the flavors of the limu, onions and
chili pepper like traditional poke.
Another variation of poke that I only
sampled once and because of the restaurant closure wasn’t able to sample again
was the Seared Ribeye Poke at Indigo.
The cubes of tender ribeye were quickly seared then tossed with shoyu, limu, sweet and green onions and red cabbage. It almost made me forget
about that other red meat, ahi. Another
poke variant doesn’t even have any
animal protein but is anchored by roasted beets. Chef Ed Kenney of Mud Hen
Water (the restaurant sits off Waialae Avenue and Waialae translates to the
water fowl or mud hen that lives in the river or water), simply lists this dish
as Beets on his menu but the roasted beets are tossed with gorilla ogo (an invasive species), smoked
macadamia nuts on mashed avocado so it contains the flavors of a good poke.
As far as traditional poke
goes, my favorite he’e (tako or octopus) poke comes from none other our local Marukai Wholesale Marts and
it’s a toss-up between the traditional Onion Tako Poke which includes sweet onions and a touch of sesame oil or
the Japanese inspired Miso Tako Poke which
includes green onions and sweet white miso.
And as far as Ahi Poke goes, my
favorite hails from my hometown in Kaneohe at Masa and Joyce with their Shoyu Ahi Poke. The cubes of ahi are perfectly cut so that none of
the sinew is exposed and they pack the shoyu
based marinade separately so that the ahi
doesn’t get over saturated with the sauce. Of course I did sample enenue (rudderfish) poke years ago which supposedly is a traditional poke from Lahaina, Maui. Because enenue only gorge on limu, the flesh takes on a distinct,
strong seaweed flavor. To makes matter even more challenging, the traditional poke leaves the skin on the cubes of
fish which is as chewy as fish skin gets. Bizarre Foods poke at the very least.
So if you want to try your hand at creating your
own poke in the upper 49, simply go
to the Noh Foods website where they sell packets with dried limu, Hawaiian salt and chili pepper to
create your own poke… the challenge
will be finding your own supply of fresh fish…
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