Poke is raw fish, cut into cubes and seasoned. The name is Hawaiian for “to slice” or “cut crosswise into pieces” (Wikipedia). Every poke makes the same four choices: the fish, what seasons it, what’s mixed through it for crunch and bite, and how it’s served.
The styles split on two of them. Hawaiian poke is mostly fish, seasoned lightly and eaten as a snack, with rice on the side if there’s rice at all. The mainland poke bowl turns it around: rice at the bottom, the fish as one part of three, and a pile of toppings and sauce. Both are good, but they’re different dishes.
We ate three pokes in Hawaii that we want to make at home: the Hawaiian style, shoyuShoyuJapanese soy sauce, brewed from soybeans and wheat., and garlic shoyu. They were great on rice, and with salad.
Good fish is most of the work. With fish that’s fresh and cold, the seasoning only has to stay out of its way.
Poke and ceviche
They look alike: raw fish in small pieces, with onion and chili. The difference is the acid. Ceviche is marinated in lime or lemon juice, which changes the fish’s proteins so the flesh turns opaque and firm, as if it were cooked (Wikipedia). Poke is seasoned with salt, or soy and sesame oil, and the fish stays glossy and tastes raw. Salt and soy firm the outside a little, but nothing changes it through.
| Poke | Ceviche | |
|---|---|---|
| Fish | AhiAhiYellowfin or bigeye tuna, the usual fish for poke in Hawaii., akuAkuSkipjack tuna: smaller than ahi, darker and stronger-tasting, and one of the original poke fish., salmon, octopus | White fish (sea bass, corvina), shrimp |
| What seasons it | Salt, or shoyu and sesame oil | Lime or lemon juice, salt |
| What it does to the fish | Seasons it; it stays raw | Turns it opaque and firm |
| Time | 15 minutes to 1 hour | Minutes (modern) to about 3 hours (traditional) |
| Mix-ins | Sweet onion, green onion, limuLimuHawaiian seaweed; in poke it’s most often ogo, a crisp, briny red seaweed, chopped., nuts | Red onion, chili, cilantro |
| From | Hawaii | Coastal Peru |
Neither one makes fish safe. Acid looks like cooking, but it doesn’t kill parasites or bacteria, so ceviche needs the same frozen, eat-it-raw fish as poke.
The two meet in the rest of the Pacific. Filipino kinilaw cures cubed fish in vinegar or sour fruit juice, and Polynesian ‘ota ‘ika (poisson cru) cures it in citrus, then adds coconut milk (Wikipedia). That’s the closest to the coconut cream ceviche we had in Hawaii.
All methods →