Tuesday, 4 August 2020

A Dozen Jars


I’m by no means an authority, but when I mentioned poke bowls in a post a couple of weeks ago, a few of my friends asked about it. So here goes: The word poke (when it doesn’t mean to jab or prod someone) is Hawaiian. It’s pronounced “po-KAY,” and it rhymes with the word okay. It means chunk, or to cut into chunks. As I understand it, the word used to refer to any meat or seafood coarsely chopped and marinated. These days it’s more often applied to seafood, especially very fresh sushi-grade bigeye or yellow fin tuna, served with soy sauce, sesame oil, red onion, and scallions; over hot rice or fresh greens. Before the pandemic turned everything upside-down, poke shacks were popping up all over (even in my little corner of the world) driven by an appetite for fresh ingredients and exciting flavors. It will be interesting to see how many are still here when the dust settles.

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