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Hawaiian poke has never been trendier. But the mainland is ruining it.

P

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
Washington Post

It has never been easier to get poke, the marinated raw ahi tuna that is the unofficial food of Hawaii, on the mainland. You'll find the dish— pronounced po-kay — in Minnesota, Indiana and landlocked Colorado. There's poke from Pittsburgh to Peoria, Ariz. You can buy poke kits in grocery stores, and you don't even have to leave your house for it in Chicago; ASAP Poke, a delivery-only restaurant, will bring it to you. New York has a slew of fast-casual fish places. And in the Washington area, there's Poké Papa, Poki District, Abunai and Honeyfish, all of which have opened in the past four months, joining Hula Girl Bar and Grill, Pokéworks and District Fishwife, which already served the dish.

Homesick Hawaiians must be thrilled, right?

”I tried one, and I swore never to go again," said Sonny Acosta, 30, who moved to New York from Hono­lulu two years ago. ”It's not really poke."
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It's not just that poke tastes better when you're in Hawaii. It's that mainland restaurateurs, bandwagoning on what they see as the biggest trend of the year, have changed it into something altogether different — something that people from Hawaii say doesn't respect their cultural heritage. It plays into an impassioned debate in the food world now about whether a dish prepared outside its original context is an homage or crosses the line into appropriation.

Shops in Washington are putting corn in it. They're topping it with kale — kale! They're putting the fish on top of ”zoodles," or zucchini noodles, as customers order down a line, Chipotle-style. They're adding a sprinkle of cilantro, or even sweet strawberry sauce. And, adding insult to injury, some aren't even spelling the word correctly.
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There are a few reasons poke has boomed on the mainland: It's raw and full of veggies, so it's branded as healthful. And it's relatively simple to open a shop.

”From the business side, it's so easy to make," said Martha Cheng, author of ”The Poke Cookbook." ”You don't need a full kitchen, you don't need an oven, you don't need a grease trap."

It's also colorful and inherently Instagrammable — especially if you add lots of toppings, like the pink-and-green watermelon radish and neon orange masago, a type of fish egg, available at Poké Papa on H Street.
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But it's this ”mainland poke," as they call it in Hawaii, that looks different from what you'd find in restaurants and grocery stores on the islands. In Washington, shops are offering more toppings than in a frozen yogurt bar, provoking those who serve a more traditional version of poke — such as Abunai, whose owner, Akina Harada, has Native Hawaiian ancestors — to call out the others: This spring, she posted a sign outside her downtown restaurant: ”Friends don't let friends eat FAKE poke."
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The option of pineapple might be the gravest offense to some locals in Hawaii. It's already a cultural irritation due to Hawaiian pizza — invented in Canada.
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”You get people who complain that we have toppings, and I don't understand," said Chao, who is originally from Missouri and acknowledges his poke isn't authentic. ”Just don't get the toppings."
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Some restaurants, in an attempt to make an unfamiliar word easier for their customers to pronounce, changed the spelling to ”poki" or ”poké." But it's imposing a Western spelling and diacritical mark on a Hawaiian word. The spelling, for some Hawaiians, is what makes mainland poke cross the line from ill-intentioned homage to flat-out cultural appropriation.

”It's sort of the continuation of the colonization of our people, where they tell us how we should act, and how we should spell and how we should eat our food," said Noelani Puniwai, an assistant professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
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Pls refrain from "I thought this was about Hawaiian people poking you or something wtf!!!!" posts
 
EYEL1NER

EYEL1NER

Member
I looked up a pic and man, that looks good. I'm gonna have to see if anywhere in Charleston or Columbia serves it, because I'll give it a shot.

EDIT: Ooh, looks like there is a place in Columbia near the University, Poke Bros to Go. From their website, it looks exactly like the kind of place the article is saying people have a problem with. https://eatpokebros.com
 
R

richiek

steals Justin Bieber DVDs
“From the business side, it’s so easy to make,” said Martha Cheng, author of “The Poke Cookbook.” “You don’t need a full kitchen, you don’t need an oven, you don’t need a grease trap.”
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That's the main reason why poke restaurants are popping up all over NYC. Low overhead, since you don't need much cooking equipment. Just a rice cooker and refrigeration for the seafood.
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
PeskyToaster said:
That's how food evolves. People take a concept they enjoy and add their own local differences to it.
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This.

As long as people acknowledge its roots respectively, who the hell cares how they modify it.

Chances are your cultures favorite dish was stolen from somewhere else.
 
G

G0523

Member
I had poke for the first time when I was in Los Angeles a few weeks ago and I really enjoyed it. The trick is to not go crazy with it. Just stick with traditional sushi ingredients, don't put any fruit in it, and you'll be good.
 
A

Aselith

Member
The option of pineapple might be the gravest offense to some locals in Hawaii. It’s already a cultural irritation due to Hawaiian pizza — invented in Canada.
Click to expand...

Hawaiians on the right side of history!


pigeon said:
It's true, you guys are terrible at poke.
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Terrible or different? There's a lot of "not like mom used to make" that goes on with food specialties
 
P

plainr_

Member
Some restaurants, in an attempt to make an unfamiliar word easier for their customers to pronounce, changed the spelling to ”poki"
Click to expand...

This is some shit. It's two damn syllables and and everyone knows how to pronounce Pokemon just fine.
 
P

pigeon

Banned
Aselith said:
Hawaiians on the right side of history!




Terrible or different? There's a lot of "not like mom used to make" that goes on with food specialties
Click to expand...

Sometimes the reason mom made it that way was that it tasted really good that way and doesn't taste as good other ways.
 
C

Curler

Unconfirmed Member
I had no idea they put some of those things in poke... I only put fish, sauce, seaweed flakes, and egg roe in mine. I have seen corn and avacado, but that's as crazy as I've seen it (Bay Area).
 
M

M52B28

Banned
It has turned into a personal cuisine for specific cities. I see nothing wrong. It's no different than many fusion cuisine places.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Seattle is lousy with it. A poke restaurant opened near my house that basically pretends to be a corner store so I wonder if that licensing subtlety is part of the growth but hell it's delicious.
 
B

border

Member
Sorry yeah, regional cuisines will be changed and altered as they make their way around the globe. Trying to portray this as "appropriation" is just trying to create controversy where there is none.
 
E

explodet

Member
I'm more of a Loco Moco kind of guy.

1200px-Loco_Moco.jpg
Click to expand...

No appropriation necessary.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
It plays into an impassioned debate in the food world now about whether a dish prepared outside its original context is an homage or crosses the line into appropriation.
Click to expand...

Roling my eyes so hard at this suggestion.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Also real talk?

CEVICHE dongs on poke.

Poke is what happens when you forgot to buy citrus fruit.
 
S

Spaced Harrier

Member
Ahaha, I came across this a couple of months ago at the gourmet market stalls which crop up near my work once a week.

In Dublin. Ireland.

My reaction was, "What the fuck is poke?"

"Well it's a bowl, with fish and.."
"Yeah, no man, your fine. I'll grab a burrito at the next stall. Thx, bye."
 
M

Marmaladefire

Member
Yaboosh said:
Food should always be exempt from cultural appropriation accusations.
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Absolutely not. I see you've never been to a gentrified community in a large metro area. Drain the culture, make it "marketable", get rid of all of the undesirable minorities attached to the food and culture. The conversations are intertwined.

Oh course, these are probably the same people who will eat quinoa sushi.
 
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