Poke Go, Go, Go

The story behind the sudden ubiquity of an unassuming Hawaiian delicacy.

- Kate Krader

First there was the cupcake. Then cold-pressed juice. Now, poke. Known as Hawaii’s original street food, poke (pronounced po-kay) today mostly consists of diced raw tuna, salmon, or some other fish, served over rice and mixed greens, with add-ons such as edamame, avocado, seaweed, and toasted nuts. And suddenly it’s everywhere. 

The dish ticks multiple boxes. It’s a fresh, healthy, high-protein, and, at about $13 a bowl, relatively inexpensive lunch or late-night working dinner. A poke bowl takes the efficiency and compose-it-yourself satisfaction of a Chopt salad and gives it the deluxe sheen of sushi.  

But that doesn’t explain the dish’s swift march from Maui to Midtown. In the past two years, almost 300 Hawaiian restaurants have opened in the U.S., the majority of them featuring poke, and for one exquisitely simple reason: To open a poke place, all you need is an electrical outlet to cook the rice and a refrigeration unit for the fish. This also makes it easier to get landlords to approve—they’ll always prefer a restaurant that doesn’t require noisy venting systems and smelly cooking.