RAW BEAUTY
Houston getting in on next big thing as menus feature a variety of poke dishes
HAD any good poke lately? If not, that’s your own fault. The city seems to be swimming in this raw fish dish lately.
Pronounced POH-keh, it’s a Hawaiian-born preparation of cubed raw fish lightly dressed and tossed with a variety of mix-ins. (Poke in Hawaiian means to “slice,” cut crosswise into pieces.) Think of a bowl of pristine, cubed tuna lightly dressed in soy sauce, with maybe some sliced green onion and avocado and sesame seeds, and you’ve got the basic picture of the classic Hawaiian poke — a lean, luscious meal you can feel good about. Consider it a seafood version of steak tartare.
Across the nation, poke — ubiquitous in Hawaii, usually found in run-of-the-mill grocery stores and gas stations and served in plastic cups or Styrofoam bowls — is staking its claim as one of the next big food trends. Fast-casual restaurants such as Wisefish Poke in New York, Sweetfin Poke in Los Angeles and the bi-coastal Pokeworks (California and New York) are doing gangbuster business with Chipotle-like menus from which customers build their own poke bowls: a foundation of rice, vegetable noodles or greens; a choice of fish (usually yellowfin tuna, salmon, snapper); and sauce (shoyu, ponzu, spicy mayo) with mix-ins and toppings (cucumber, avocado, edamame, jalapeño, sesame seeds, fresh ginger, scallions).
For people who like ceviche and sushi (that means you, Houston), poke represents familiar territory while also something deliciously new. Unlike ceviche, in which the seafood is “cooked” in lime juice, the fish in poke remains raw (that’s why it’s made to order or in batches that move quickly). Locally, you can find poke presentations at a variety of restaurants from fastcasual to serious whitetablecloth dining. Velvet Taco offers a taco with ahi poke dressed in gingersoy vinaigrette, avocado, seaweed salad and sesame seeds. Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ, a chain with a store in Midtown, claims its best-selling item is its ahi tuna poke. Kata Robata serves Big Eye Tuna Poke with a ginger-soy dressing. Yellowfin tuna poke with tomato, citrussoy, red onion, cilantro and toasted nori can be found on the menu at the posh Peska Seafood Culture. Ahi tuna poke with grapefruit, blood orange and shredded nori is among the starters at Killen’s Steakhouse in Pearland.
And at Shade restaurant in the Heights, chef Greg Beebe is preparing Gulf snapper poke dressed in lime and citrus with avocado, chile and taro chips. Though Asian flavors traditionally grace poke, Beebe said there’s no reason you can’t tailor your poke to your own tastes. Mediterranean poke can be made with olive oil, olives and sundried tomatoes. “There are a lot of different ways you can go with it,” he said. “But let the fish star.”
A firm-fleshed fish with some fattiness makes for optimal poke, he added.
The restaurants making the biggest poke splash in Houston are the Liberty Kitchen stores (Liberty Kitchen & Oyster Bar in the Heights, Liberty Kitchen & Oysterette in River Oaks and Little Liberty in Rice Village). They all share a similar Hawaiian poke menu from which diners can customize their own raw fish salad. The options include a base (warm rice, cucumber or kale), raw fish (tuna or salmon), a dressing (tamari or a spicy mayo) and then optional add-ins such as mango, fresh jalapeño, avocado, grated ginger, seaweed and crushed macadamia nuts.
Fans can thank the restaurant group’s partner/executive chef Lance Fegen for pushing Liberty’s poke program. Friends in Hawaii introduced Fegen, a surfer, to poke about a dozen years ago. They got their poke, as locals do, at a gas station in a disposable cup. Unquestionably fresh, the simple raw fish preparation was perfect for the surfer life: “You’re in the water for five or six hours being thrashed around. You get out, and you’re famished,” he said. “It doesn’t weigh you down like a big, fat hamburger. You can go right back out surfing.”
Fegen also happens to find poke delicious. “I’m a calorie counter, and it’s a fresh product that’s almost all healthy across the board,” he said. “You’re talking about a very clean protein and a very clean approach. It offers flavor, texture, all sorts of salty, crunchy, sweet.”
His earlier encounters with poke were very pure, lightly dressed versions. But today’s poke can be taken in so many directions, so it’s a perfect dish to star on the Liberty menus, he said. “Liberty has always been about choice and customizable food,” he said, adding that poke can be topped with any number of flavorful adornments: fried oysters, grilled pineapple, fresh jalapeños.
Though Fegen has had poke on the menu at his BRC Gastropub and when he was chef at Glass Wall, poke is a food of the moment. In fact, it has become a best-seller at the Liberty Kitchen restaurants. He calls the dish “feminine” because it clearly appeals to female diners. (Don’t feel left out, gents: He’s planning to introduce a char-grilled beef tenderloin “poke.”)
Poke is perfect for the warmer summer months. It also makes sense in a city like Houston, Fegen said. It’s familiar in its makeup — fish, avocado, dressing, spice and chile, as much as you want — similar to ceviche or campechana.
“It’s got that Mexican side we like, but it also has that Asian thing we like,” he said. “It’s a mixture of the two.”
Want to take a poke at poke? Here’s how to re-create the Hawaiian magic at home.