Read Da Perfect Poke Part 1 and Part 2.
I elect to start my 24-hour pokethon at night, as many restaurants don’t serve it on breakfast or lunch menus. Sam Choy’s is the first stop and the second is Side Street Inn, a popular sports bar that chefs frequent after their shifts due to the mellow vibe and the outstanding grinds. I sit at the bar and two minutes after I place my poke order a plate of gleaming red cubes of fish sits in front of me. Side Street owner Colin Nishimoto has established a reputation for top quality food at rock bottom prices and this held true for my poke. A good size portion of fresh ahi spiked with large rings of green onion and chunks of white onions ran me only $8. Side Street poke had more sesame oil and soy sauce that Sam Choy’s poke and a touch of sweetness. It also had more zip as the larger onion chunks held their spice and aroma better than the finely chopped version I had at Choy’s. Which was better? A very tough call. I decided that choice would have to wait until morning.
A new day dawns in my pokethon. It’s 9:30 am and Tamura’s Market is open. A windowless cinder-block eyesore plopped down in the middle of a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, Tamura’s packs a stellar wine section and matching high-end cheese. But the shop, whose owners started out running blue-collar superettes, makes some of the freshest poke in Honolulu at a small deli counter at the back of the store. Morning is often a good time to get poke from these types of places because its likely to be extremely fresh; Tamuras uses mostly fresh seafood in its pokes. I order quarter-pound portions of three types of poke; ahi with ‘inamona, ahi with jalapenos, and tako (octopus) poke with Tamura’s special sauce, a tangy pleasant mix of lemon juice, sugar, and oyster sauce. Plastic fork in hand I greedily scarf down the poke in the parking lot, eliciting knowing looks from other customers bearing poke and six-packs of beer. The jalapeno poke is lightly seasoned cubes or ruby red ahi tossed with thinly sliced arcs or sweet onions and spicy peppers and coated lightly with sesame oil. The ahi has no fishiness and has the most amazing texture, firm enough for bites but yielding enough to give the sensation that its melting on the tongue like ice cream. The tako poke is very good, as well – not rubbery at all and with a nice tang from the oyster sauce. The ‘inamona proved a bit much for me; it so covered the fish that the chunks seemed dry in the mouth. Maybe with a beer? Then I remembered it was still long before noon.
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