Poke and poke bowls have found a place in our kitchens in recent years. They are effectively the Hawaiian version of sushi. Poke emerged where fish is particularly fresh, namely amongst fishermen themselves. They cut scraps of fish up small and marinated them in a sauce. We are already familiar with that in the form of the South American dish ceviche.
The fishermen continued to eat the pieces of fish, and at some stage this became Hawaii’s unofficial national dish. In a poke bowl, the marinated fish pieces are placed on a bed of rice. Various toppings are added, such as avocado, herbs and sesame seeds. What’s more, there’s a very similar dish in Japan called donburi.
The wide variety of toppings for the rice, both in Hawaii and Japan, is now inducing people to occasionally omit the original ingredient, in other words the fish. If you would like to try that out, experiment with dressings and soy sauce, and with fruit and vegetables. If you like something with a kick, it’s perfectly possible to create a full-bodied and aromatic topping, for example by using wasabi-flavoured mayonnaise.
I’ve also found a super version of vegetarian poke on the blog www.101cookbooks.com ((Link https://www.101cookbooks.com/watermelon-poke-recipe)). The well-known US blogger and author Heidi Swanson suggests mixing diced watermelon with a dressing in the style of a poke. The melon looks very similar to tuna, and the dish tastes like summer on a plate.