The poke most people mean. AhiAhiYellowfin or bigeye tuna, the usual fish for poke in Hawaii. tossed in soy sauce and toasted sesame oil, with sweet onion, green onion, and toasted sesame seeds. It’s savoury, a little nutty, and quick.
Picks
Savoury, nutty, and fresh.
- The fish: Ahi
- The seasoning: ShoyuShoyuJapanese soy sauce, brewed from soybeans and wheat. and sesame oil, 2:1, with a little rice vinegar and ginger
- Onions, seaweed, and crunch: Sweet Maui onion, green onion, and toasted sesame seeds
- How it’s served: On its own, or over hot rice
Where it comes from
Chinese and Japanese plantation workers brought soy sauce and sesame oil to Hawaii from the mid-1800s. Food historian Rachel Laudan dates poke’s present form to around the 1970s, and today shoyu and sesame oil is its most common flavour (Wikipedia).
Why these picks
- 2:1 shoyu to sesame oil. Soy brings the salt and savouriness; the oil coats the fish and carries the nutty flavour. More oil and it’s greasy.
- Sweet onion. Crunch, and a sweetness that balances the soy.
How it fails
- Too salty, dark, and firm: it sat in the shoyu too long. Give it 15 minutes to an hour.
- Greasy: too much sesame oil. Keep it to half the soy.
Variations
- Wasabi poke: wasabi stirred into the shoyu.
- Garlic shoyu poke: garlic oil in place of some of the sesame oil, with fresh local chili.
- With limuLimuHawaiian seaweed; in poke it’s most often ogo, a crisp, briny red seaweed, chopped.: chopped ogo through it, halfway back to Hawaiian limu poke.