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In Hawaiʻi, Every Day is Poke Day!

illustration of poke

by Leilehua Yuen

I was so excited to see our beloved poke (pronounced POH-keh) being recognized internationally with its own holiday on 28 September, and then soooo disappointed when I read the article. As it turns out, there is a website that, for $5000, will create a holiday for your industry and promote it.

No, in Hawaiʻi, we do not call poke a “chop.” And no, we did not make poke part of Hawaiian culture “in the spirit of aloha.” And the dish was not specifically made as a snack with which to greet guests. It’s a yummy meal we make for ourselves, and also might share with guests.

“Poke” translates to English as to cut something crossways into pieces, or to press something out, as in pressing ʻopihi out of its shell or to press the gut-sack out of an ʻopihi. It also can be a bite-sized piece of something.

Despite the claims of certain websites, poke was eaten in Hawaiʻi long before the 1970s. Much like the term “lūʻau” (leaf of the taro plant, an important food at Hawaiian meals) in the 18th century was used as slang for an ʻaha ʻāina and eventually came into common use, so “poke” as the name of the dish probably originated as a slang term, since the fish is cut crosswise into bite-sized pieces to make the dish. No one really knows when it came into common use, but my late mother claimed to be familiar with it in the 1950s.

“O ka ino ke kumu i nele ai o Ulakoheo i ka ia i keia mau la. Aohe ohuohu pono o na papakaukau, o ke kamano no kahi ia ano mahuahua iki i keia mau la, aka, oia no ke kamaaina o ka makeke. Ua ike iho makou i ke kamano maikai loa ma kahi o McCandless ma, Ma kanela ma, ke kuai liilii ia nei no hoi, nunui no ka poke o ka hapawalu me ke ko, ki, palaoa, a me na mea ai maikai e ae no hoi, a he makepono loa ke kumukuai, aka, na oukou no nae e hele e ike maka no oukou iho.“

Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke 5, Helu 11, 17 Malaki 1866

The article says that despite the storms making it hard to catch fish, there is plenty of salmon poke (pieces) available at McCandless Store for an inexpensive price.

Dishes related to poke are iʻa maka (raw fish), iʻa lomi (massaged fish), and iʻa palu (fermented fish).

Lomilomi salmon became popular in the whaling era when Hawaiian people would use the imported salt salmon (mentioned in the above newspaper article), rinse out the salt, cut it up, and lomilomi (massage) it with limu (seaweed), tomato, and onion. It remains a popular dish.

Honolulu Magazine has an article interviewing Sam Choy about poke in which he discusses a little history of this iconic Hawaiian dish.

Here is Geraldine’s favorite poke recipe. It’s from the 1950s, when she was married to my father. Notice that unlike more traditional versions, there is no limu (seaweed). That is because at the time it was impossible to get limu kohu, līpoa, wāwaeʻiole, ʻakiʻaki, or even ogo seaweeds in Oakland, California, where they lived. But, being desperate for flavors from home, she and my father came up with this recipe.

For more about poke, visit Kau Kau Kitchen.

Poke

by Geraldine Duncann

Serves 6 to 8

Poke, like lomilomi salmon and sashimi, is raw fish.  It should be make with sushi or sashimi grade fresh, fresh, fresh ahi tuna (which unfortunately is very expensive).  This recipe calls for a pound of tuna.  This is a recipe about which you do not have to be precise.  Add what you like in what proportions you like.  You can only afford half a pound, fine; add a bit less of the other ingredients as well.  You’re feeding a gang, great; add more.

  • 1 pound fresh, fresh, fresh sashimi-grade Ahi tuna
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
  • 1 or 2 green onions, finely chopped, including the greens
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil, or to taste
  • 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root, or to taste
  • 1 or 2 small hot chilies, seeded and minced very finely, or to taste
  • 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds *
  • 1 teaspoon roasted and finely chopped kukui nuts
    (if kukui is not available, substitute macadamia nuts)
  • Hawaiian salt or rock salt to taste
     
  • Bok choy
  • Ice

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.  to serve, shred Bok choy finely, like cabbage for coleslaw and line a serving dish with it.  Pile the chilled poke onto it.  Place the serving dish on another dish filled with cracked ice.  Serve with chopsticks.  This is usually considered a “pūpū,” or appetizer.

* To toast sesame seeds, place them in a small dry skillet over medium heat and stirring frequently, toast for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown.  Watch closely as they burn easily.

Poke Bowl

A poke bowl is a wonderful example of Hawaiʻi fusion cuisine. It takes the Japanese concept of chirashizushi, literally “scattered sushi” and pairs it with Hawaiian poke. A poke bowl is simply a bowl of sushi rice topped with poke. That’s it. Youʻre welcome.

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Cook Like a Pirate!

Painting of Macao harbor with boats

by D. Leilehua Yuen

With the Chinese pirate Shek Yang (Zheng Yi Sao) going viral after books and movies included her, I thought it would be fun to do some recipes of her homeland. She probably was born in the Xinhui area, on the Tanjian River. Using modern transportation, her homeland is about an hour drive from Zhongshan, the homeland of my own Chinese ancestors.

 “The stern of the boat held a basic kitchen, with a tiny brick stove and some wood and kindling. We had an iron pot for making the simplest “fish rice,” as well as an iron plate for frying fish and shrimp. . .

“The boat was only five or six meters long. My father and grandfather would take turns standing at the bow to pole the boat forward and cast nets. The middle of the boat was a “ship’s cabin” made from a bamboo canopy, with long wooden boards fixed along either side. These served as both benches and beds. Clothing and food were stored beneath the boards on one side, while fishing nets were piled on the other side, along with water tanks, miscellaneous fishing gear, and repair tools. Whenever the sun was out, the top of the canopy would be covered with all kinds of drying fish.

“My mother made cloth curtains for the two sides of the cabin, so that we could change and groom ourselves with more privacy and keep out some of the wind and rain. “

Ah Jin, interview with Nathanial J. Gan Gone Ashore: Inside the Vanishing World of China’s “Sea Nomads”

Because of the challenges of cooking onboard a boat, meals probably were very simple, using as little fuel, space, and working time as possible. It seems that different styles of jook and other soups were the mainstay. Once in the pot, they can be left to simmer over a bed of coals. Dishes that required more complicated cooking, such as baking and frying in oil, might be purchased from nearby communities, though the Tanka were not welcomed in the towns.

At the bottom of this article I have a jook recipe, and found a couple of nice videos to share. I’ll add more recipes as I find them, so please check back!

This pencil and ink sketch (at the Peabody Essex Museum) shows a scene of a woman poling her boat near Macao. She could easily be Shek Yang in her younger years.

Shek Yang probably was a descendant of the Baiyue, ethnic groups who inhabited the region for about 2,000 years before their tribes were assimilated into the expanding Han empire. The Book of Han describes various Yue tribes and says the peoples can be found from the regions of Kuaiji to Jiaozhi. They were described as having short hair, body tattoos, fine swords, and great naval prowess.

According to official Liu Zongyuan (Liou Tsung-yüan; 柳宗元; 773–819) of the Tang Dynasty, there were Tanka people settled in what are now Guangdong province and the Guangxi Zhang autonomous region.

A Tanka Boat Girl
Chinese School of Art, 19th Century
Shek Yang probably dressed much like this young woman.

By the time of Shek Yang, the late 18th century through early 19th century, many of the Yue descendants had been pushed to the rivers and oceans, displaced by the Han communities in Guangdong who called the earlier inhabitants “Tanka” or “boat people.” The term is now considered derogatory and many discourage its use. Nàamhóiyàn (People of the Southern Sea) or Séuiseuhngyàn (People Born on the Waters) are gaining in usage.

The People Born on the Waters did not practice foot binding, they spoke their own dialect, and had their own style of music. They were forbidden to marry the land-dwelling Han Chinese, or even to live on land, except for some small houses at the water edge.

Today, the People Born on the Waters are facing changes from the environment, development, and society. I hope that they can navigate these new currents to live as they wish.

River Dwelling, Canton, Guangzhou, China
John Thomson, 1869
Auguste Borget sketch 1838
Shek Yang might have been born in a home similar to these. Land-based homes often were made from boats which had been pulled up out of the water, or the homes were constructed to be similar to a boat.

Unfortunately, many people are sharing turn-of-the-century photographs claiming that they are Shek Yang, and these images have nothing to do with her!

Though they should not be conflated, there are similarities between the Ainu and the Séuiseuhngyàn. Both are indigenous peoples, both were colonized and displaced, both are being severely impacted by environmental destruction.

I recommend watching this video with the sound muted, while listening to the woman singing on this one.

You can learn about the Ainu people in this excellent documentary below by Dr. Kinko Ito, a professor of sociology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) in the United States. She conducted her research and many unstructured interviews in Hokkaido in 2011, 2012, and 2014. This ethnographic film features several Ainu people, and the interview topics include identity, marriage and family, human relations with non-Ainu Japanese, their history, and school and work experiences.

This image below also is not of Shek Yang. But the actress Crystal Yu is, indeed, lovely!

Shek Yang would have looked much more like this woman, below. Maybe I should make my own Shek Yang fan art?!

You can help support my research in global food and culture by becoming a patron of the Questing Feast Patreon page which continues to support the work and legacy of Geraldine Duncann.

Tom Johnson photograph of Tanka woman 1869

Tingzai Zhou 艇仔粥 (Sampan Jook)

Tingzai Zhou is the modern spelling of the old-fashioned sampan jook I grew up with. This variety is also known as boater’s jook, boat congee, or any of several other names. Considered to have been developed by the Nàamhóiyàn of Lìzhī Wān (Lychee Bay) it’s a great one-pot meal. One pot meals that are easy to prepare, filling, and nutritious are important in the limited space of a boat! While my family is descended from the later Han inhabitants of the Zhongshan area, sampan jook became a popular dish throughout the Pearl River Delta.

Here is how my family prepares it:

If you don’t have an item, donʻt worry about it, just substitute something else that would taste good in the blend. This kind of cooking is not about following a specific recipe, but about adapting a basic recipe to what is available.

  • Rice (white or brown short grain)
  • Chicken carcass or pork bones
  • Chicken meat
  • Pork meat
  • Shrimp
  • Fish (I prefer a white flesh fish for this)
  • Water chestnut, slivered
  • Ginger, slivered
  • Scallion, shredded
  • Pi dan (hundred year egg), roughly chopped
  • Fried peanuts
  1. Cook rice as you normally would. You will want about a half-cup of uncooked rice per person, plus one full cup. When we know we want to make jook, like when a storm is coming, we make lots of extra rice the night before.
  2. For the main proteins, combined, you will want about a half-cup per person.
  3. While the rice is cooking, or even the morning or night before, boil the chicken carcass and/or pork bones to create a broth. You want about 2 cups of broth per person. Strain all bones out of the broth.
  4. When the rice is cooked, add it to the broth and cook just below a simmer. Long slow cooking to make a porridge about the consistency of split pea soup. These days, I do this in my slow cooker.
  5. While the rice is cooking, prepare your other ingredients. I cut the pork, chicken, and fish into pieces about 1/2in by 1in or 2in. These are blanched to set and firm them. The fish, especially, will tend to fall apart in the jook if not set first. It will still be tasty, but there won’t be delicious chunks of fish to eat! Set them aside.
  6. If the shrimp is small enough to pick up with chopsticks and eat conveniently, just shell, de-vein, and blanch them. If it is too big, then after cleaning, cut them into bite-sized pieces.
  7. When the proteins are cooked, garnish the top with the remaining ingredients.

You can serve this in one big bowl with the garnishes already added, and people can scoop out what they want, or you can serve in individual bowls and people can add the garnishes they like.

Here is another way of preparing this hearty jook:

Youtiao 油條

Also known as yau char kway in Southern China and guǒzi  in Northern China. It also has a multitude of other names throughout the dough-frying world!

For myself, I just buy them, so my advice on how to make them will not be the best. I guess I need to make them, though, as these days I cannot find anyone who sells them. I like this video series:

Resources

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3729031907181150

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Jack London

by Geraldine Duncann ©2009

Jack London, one of America’s greatest novelists, a social advocate and a true renaissance man, was born on January 12, 1876. What better way to celebrate than with some of his favorite foods.

Along with pioneer vintner, Agoston Haraszthy and botanist, Luther Burbank, author Jack London is one of my favorite California folk heroes.  This may in part be due to my family’s close connection with him.  As a boy, my father knew Jack London and often spent summers at the ranch in Glen Ellen. 

Jack taught my father to ride and fish and much to my grandmothers mortification, also to cuss, tell risqué stories and to drink.  My dad always reminisced with great fondness of the lavish meals served in the rustic setting of the Glen Ellen camp where Jack and his second wife, Charmian spent much of their time during the construction of the ill fated Wolf House.

Socialist London’s political views were ahead of his time.  Dying in 1916, he was not to see the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, giving woman the vote in the United States.  He had long been a supporter of a woman’s right to vote and contributed some of his favorite recipes to Mrs. L.O. Kleber, author of “The Suffragette Cookbook,” a book published in 1915 to raise money for the suffragette movement.

You can help raise money to keep Geraldine’s website on-line by purchasing through our links.

Among the recipes he contributed was a dish he called Hawaiian Salad, (Lomi-Lomi Salmon), which he had become fond of while in Hawaii.  Other recipes include Savory Rice with Tomatoes, Roquefort Stuffed Celery and several recipes for oysters including: Oyster Savories, Anchor Steam Steamed Oysters and Oysters Barbecued with Steam Beer.  It is likely that he developed his fondness for oysters during his early years as an Oyster Pirate in San Francisco Bay.

Unfortunately Jack fondness for life led to his early death at the age of 40.  In his own words:

“I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than that it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

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Oysters Barbecued with Steam Beer

by Geraldine Duncann ©2009

This is another method of serving oysters that my father learned from Jack London.  It also uses Anchor Steam Beer as well as a lot of finely chopped garlic.

  • Fresh live oysters in the shell
  • Finely minced garlic
  • Anchor Steam beer
  • Salt and pepper and favorite hot sauce

Scrub the shells of the oysters with a stiff brush under cold running water.  Discard any that are open and do not close when you tap the shell.  Place the oysters, on a rack over the glowing coals of a barbecue.  Leave until they just begin to open.  Using tongues, remove them and with an oyster knife, pry the shells the rest of the way open.  Place the oyster in the deep half of the shell.  Add a pinch of minced garlic and a bit of beer.  Add salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste and return to the barbecue and continue cooking to desired degree of doneness.  SPECTACULAR!

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Jack London’s Steam Beer Steamed Oysters

by Geraldine Duncann ©2009

It wouldn’t be Christmas Eve at our house without oysters steamed with Anchor Steam Beer and fresh California Bay Leaves.  This method was taught to my father by Jack London during one of my dad’s visits to Jack’s Beauty Ranch in Glen Ellen.  My father remained an adamant and dedicated advocate of San Francisco’s own Anchor Steam Beer all of his life.

  • Fresh Live Oysters in the Shell
  • 1 bottle Anchor Steam Beer
  • Water
  • 1 or 2 fresh California Bay Laurel leaves

Scrub the shells of the oysters with a stiff brush under cold running water.  Discard any that are open and do not close when you tap the shell.  Place them in a large pot with a tight fitting lid or a steamer.  (if you happen to have a tamale steamer, or set of Chinese steamer baskets, that would work just fine too). Add enough water to make the total amount of liquid come to about two inches deep.  Add 1 or 2 fresh bay leaves.  Cover with the lid and over a high heat, steam until the shells begin to pop open.  Remove from the steamer with tongues and pile into a serving bowl.  Accompany with melted butter, fresh horseradish, Tabasco and of course, Anchor Steam Beer.  Each diner will need an oyster knife and a large cloth napkin or tea towel moistened at one end.

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Oyster Savories

by Geraldine Duncann ©2009

Oysters were always a favorite food for Jack London.  He most likely learned to enjoy them during his time as an oyster pirate in his youth.

  • Shucked fresh small oysters
  • Salt and fresh coarse ground black pepper
  • Lean bacon
  • Softened butter
  • Minced garlic cloves
  • Toast triangles or rounds
  • Fresh lemon

Season the oysters with salt and pepper.  Wrap each in a strip of bacon and secure with a wooden toothpick.  Blend minced garlic to taste with the softened butter and spread on the toast triangles.  Place a bacon wrapped oyster on each toast triangle.  Set the savories on a baking sheet and place in a preheated 350°F – (180°C or Gas mark 4) until the bacon is crisp, about 3 to 5 minutes.  Remove from the oven and place on a warmed serving dish.  Squeeze a bit of fresh lemon juice over each.  Garnish with sprigs of fresh parsley or dill weed and wedges of lemon.  Serve hot.

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Lomi Lomi Salmon

by Geraldine Duncann ©2009

Serves 6 to 8

Lomi lomi salmon is a dish that did not come to the islands until after contact with Haole, (whites or Europeans).  Salmon is not a Hawaiian fish.  Hawaiians did not begin using it until traders brought salted salmon from Alaska to trade for Hawaiian goods.  Lomi lomi means to knead or massage.  It was necessary to “lomi lomi” the salmon in water to remove some of the salt, and that is how this recipe was developed.  Actually, most of the ingredients used in lomi lomi salmon were unknown in Hawaii until after contact with haole people. 

  • About 1  pound salt salmon
  • 1 smallish white onion, diced very fine
  • 2 to 3 green onions, chopped fine
  • 2 to 3 tomatoes, seeded and diced small

Dice the salmon into about 1/4 inch pieces, removing any bones and bits of fat or sinew as you do.   Place in a colander and rinse under cold running water to remove excess salt.   Add the remaining ingredients and lomi lomi until well mixed.  Place in a serving dish and set the dish on a larger dish filled with crushed ice.  It should always be served very cold.