Poke (Hawaii)



Poke is a raw salad served as an appetizer in Hawaiian cuisine. Pokē is the Hawaiian verb for "section" or "to slice or cut". Ahi poke is made with yellowfin tuna. Limu poke includes a type of seaweed.

Ingredients
Modern poke typically consists of cubed raw ahi (yellowfin tuna) marinated with sea salt, a small amount of soy sauce, inamona (roasted crushed candlenut), sesame oil, limu seaweed, and chopped chili pepper. Other variations of ingredients may include cured hee (octopus), other types of raw tuna, raw salmon and other kinds of sashimi, sliced or diced Maui onion, furikake, hot sauce (such as sambal olek), chopped ohia (tomato), tobiko (flying fish roe), ogo or other types of seaweed, and garlic.

The selection of condiments has been heavily influenced by Japanese and other Asian cuisines.

History
The traditional Hawaiian poke consists of meat that has been gutted, skinned, and deboned. It is sliced across the backbone as fillet, then served with traditional condiments such as sea salt, seaweed, and limu. Some Hawaiians would suck the flesh off the bones and spit out the skin and bones. During the 19th century, recently introduced foreign vegetables such as tomatoes and onions were included, and now Maui onions are a very common ingredient.

According to the food historian Rachel Laudan, the present form of poke became popular around the 1970s. It used skinned, deboned, and filleted raw fish served with wasabi (Japanese green horseradish) and soy sauce. This form of poke is still common in the Hawaiian islands.

Use in other foods
Ko Olina’s Pizza Corner restaurant in Kapolei, Hawaii developed a pizza called "Original Hawaiian Poke Pizza", which uses poke on pizza.

Similar dishes
Raw fish dishes similar to poke, often served in Europe, are fish carpaccio and fish tartare. See also Hoedeopbap, a Korean cuisine, marinated raw tuna served over rice. Japanese sashimi also consist of raw fish or other animals.