Fish Tales

Healthy, tasty, fun to make, and fun to eat, poké fish salad is the biggest sensation to come out of Hawaii since hula and Don Ho.

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Food trucks, poké bars, and poké restaurants are popularizing the island staple from mainland coast to coast.

Whole Foods in Venice, California, includes a made-to-order poké bar in its seafood department with different varieties of fresh fish daily and customizable toppings like scallions, nuts, berries and mango.

Whole Foods is experimenting with a made-to-order poké bar in its seafood department with different varieties of fresh fish daily and customizable toppings like scallions, nuts, berries and mango.

At the same time, far across the country — in the nation’s capital — Mikala Brennan is now the “owner, chef, dishwasher” for the Hula Girl Truck in Washington, D.C. 

“In the beginning, we would make about 20 orders because it’s sushi-grade fish and we didn’t want to waste it,” she told LifeZette. “During the warmer months, we were going through about 30-40 pounds in a few days.” 

Sales were so hot, Brennan is now opening Hula Girl Bar and Grill in Arlington, Virginia

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The raw fish salad is a traditional appetizer in Hawaiian cuisine. The name poké derives from the Hawaiian verb for “section” or “to slice or cut.” And it was the very skilled hands of sushi ninja Sam Choy who teamed up with Max Heigh for the Poke to the Max food trucks currently raking in the bucks in Washington state.

“Seattle is a very diverse city and people have responded very well to us,” said Heigh. “We have three food trucks that will expand to four soon.”

The duo do different daily poké flavors with ahi and different grades of tuna and, of course, tako.

“We serve traditional shoyu ahi poké, but then we try to give it a northwest flare and serve salmon poké,” Heigh said.

California Stefanie Honda has family roots in Hilo on the Big Island, and Kahului on Maui. Her family is fishermen, and she borrowed their traditional recipes to open Jus’ Poke in Redondo Beach.

 “We opened before the poké trend in L.A., so I remember having to convince everyone that it was a good idea,” she said. “Since opening our doors, we’ve seen a huge wave of new poké places, some traditional and some not so traditional. We live in a world where greasy fast food accounts for the majority of our diet, so this poké wave might not be such a bad thing.”

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Consumers are loving the taste and convenience of a poké lunch grabbed on the go — especially one that comes with increasingly recognized health benefits. The same hot dog or hamburger lunch eaten daily raises the risk of ailments ranging from colorectal cancer to cardiovascular disease, while swapping that for a poké lunch was found to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer by 54 percent. Even one serving of fish per week slowed age-related mental decline, along with lowering the risk of dementia and stroke.

We live in a world where greasy fast food accounts for the majority of our diet, so this poké wave might not be such a bad thing.”

More mouth-watering research found that eating fish also reduced chronic inflammation associated with heart disease for men and women. In women, the omega-3 fatty acids in fish lowered depression.

Poké is made from raw, fresh fish, so you pay a bit for the taste and health benefits. At Marukai Market in Ward Center in Honolulu, frozen shoyu poké sells for as little as $9 a pound, while fresh ahi poké can sell for as much as $20 a pound.

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“Since we are out on the East Coast, I usually have to go off what our market price is. Usually we charge between $15-18 for the appetizer version of the ahi poke,” Brennan, of Hula Girl, said.

Lilani Estacio is a former marketing representative for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute who now works for Orca Bay Seafoods. She theorized that it was inevitable that poké would be popular as the public’s comfort level with raw fish climbed.

“Sushi or sashimi is most likely the gateway to eating raw fish —poké takes it to a different and delicious level. It also uses a fish (tuna) that people are more familiar with,” Estacio told LifeZette.

While she enjoys the poké trucks that frequent her neighborhood, she said making it is easy.

“In order for poké to be prepared at home, people should make sure they are using high quality tuna, either sashimi grade or starting from frozen and practicing safe thawing instructions,” she said.