Onward to the Fort Ruger Market, another poke bastion. This slightly dilapidated superette sits in the shadow of Diamond Head a stone’s throw from Waikiki Beach. Fort Ruger’s claim to fame is that it uses true sashimi grade ahi for its poke. It’s certainly priced that way, starting at $15 per pound. I order a quarter pound of the ahi poke with sesame oil, limu, green onions and slate. Fort Ruger is among a dying breed of small stores that make poke to order and half the fun is picking your poke seasonings. The kid behind the counter, who has obviously made a lot of poke, scoops out a generous spoonful of cubed ahi and tosses it into a clean metal container. He mixes the rest of the ingredients in quickly and stirs them vigorously with a spoon before offering me a taste of the finished product. I can definitely taste the quality of the fish, which is lusciously textured. I end up buying another quarter pound for good measure. The ala'e rock salt Fort Ruger uses is a little chunkier and saltier, and the seaweed slightly more pungent than those of tasted in other pokes. “It’s like eating the ocean,” I think, before dousing the few remaining bits with chili water to kick it up a notch.
By now it’s nearly noon and time to head to Foodland. Keoni Chang had advised me to come around lunch because Foodland often mixes its second poke batches of the day around that time. That means fresher poke. The selection is staggering. I order quarter pound portions of the mussel poke and the garlic shrimp poke. The mussels are the briniest flavoring yet, but they are quite tasty. The garlic shrimp poke is firm and meaty with plenty of zippy garlic, another delicious poke. I hop in the car and drive to the other side of the island in the sun-baked town of Waipahu. There, Sam Choy’s former executive chef Elmer Guzman has opened the Poke Stop, a seafood deli and take out with poke as its primary attraction. Guzman, who also ormerly worked with Emeril Lagasse, makes poke in small three-pound batches to ensure high turnover and high freshness. His pokes range from the traditional ahi with rock salt, limu, ‘inamona and chili water, to the somewhat far out, such as creamy mussels and kim chee ahi poke. To Be Continued....
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