Poke Bowl

An everyday Hawaiian fisherman's dish predating European contact — "poke" simply means "to slice or cut crosswise" in Hawaiian. Traditionally the fish was a reef or near-shore catch such as aku (skipjack), seasoned only with sea salt, limu (seaweed) and inamona (roasted crushed kukui nut). Soy sauce, sesame oil and onion entered after Japanese and Chinese plantation workers arrived in the mid-to-late 19th century, giving rise to the now-dominant shoyu-sesame style. The shift from reef fish to deep-water ahi (yellowfin/bigeye) tracked the rise of Japanese longline fishing in the 1920s–30s and the sashimi-grade tuna demand of the 1970s, rather than happening all at once. The customizable bowl-over-rice format with avocado and spicy-mayo belongs to a mainland US (notably Los Angeles) export wave that began around 2012; in Hawaii itself poke is more often sold by weight and eaten as a side or snack, not necessarily over rice.

Pre-contact Hawaiian fisherman's food — 'poke' just means to slice crosswise. Soy and sesame entered with late-19th-century Asian plantation labor; the avocado-and-rice bowl is a 2012 Los Angeles export.

Cubes of raw fish — traditionally a reef fish like aku, today usually ahi (yellowfin) tuna — cut large, about the size of a thumb-tip, so each bite is fish first, seasoning second. The fish should be fresh enough to glisten. The Hawaiian style is dressed with just sea salt, limu (seaweed) and inamona (roasted kukui nut); the modern style with soy sauce, sesame oil and sweet onion, eaten cold, sometimes over warm short-grain rice. Roe, avocado and seaweed salad are modern add-ons; the original is just fish, salt and onion (or seaweed).

The fish must be sashimi-grade ahi (yellowfin) cut against the grain — wrong cut and it goes mealy in the soy. Modern poke bowls overdress: traditional poke uses just enough soy and oil to coat the cubes, never to pool. If liquid sits at the bottom of the bowl, the rice goes mushy and the fish loses texture within ten minutes.