Oahu Regional Poke, the island known as the gathering place for its large mixed up culture from its history of plantations and international relations of businesses across both parts of the pacific. Oahu poke became made by fishermen who had access to fish and they would mix it in a bowl and serve it to the family meet ups around the 1970s where it would begin its journey into the 1990’s as becoming one of the most recognizable dishes in Hawaii cuisine. Oahu poke is noted to many as the poke of all pokes with its soy sauce, sesame seed oil, and seasoning basis before being packaged up in a container and brought to the seaside right before it is devoured in a post-card sunset in the background, so lets dive in and take a look at one of Hawaii’s most popular foods. Poke, it's amazing that something so simple can bring out the flavor of the fish with a light mixture that enhances the flavor and emphasizes the freshness for a perfect poke. The way to mix is important to the local community as they are also mixed with families often times being interracial and mixed people are seen as a beautiful composition of ethnic backgrounds. The poke is seen in this way as a beautiful mixture that brings out the best part of each different part to make one good tasting dish. A Local will see the soy sauce and know the soy sauce in its many flavor combinations, sesame seed oil thats mixed with other oils, and seasoning in its spice mixtures to achieve the perfect mixture of tossed ingredients. Many of the ingredients found in Poke come from the local groceries that lay across the island that all compete with their own variations of sauces and its own fish, however several oahu establishments are most known for battling it out to being the king of poke and has made oahu a premiere poke battling coliseum. A small list consists of: Foodland Poke Counter, Times Poke Counter, Alicias Market Poke Counter, Tamuras Market Poke Counter, Tamashiro Market Poke Counter, and Taniokas Seafood & Catering Poke Counter have all made their own contributions to the art of poke in the search for the ultimate mixture. This also made a unique identity in different parts of the island in the way of the poke, whether it be the Leeward, Windward, Townside, Central, or Northshore… there are different flavors that show the favorites of those parts of the island. Poke on oahu tends to show the old fashion “Aloha spirit” that is shown through the poke with an emphasis on multicultural respect in taking away the racial divide and first viewing the unsauced raw cubes or ingredients as a blank slate. The poke might not be flashy or luxurious in its packaging, but thats because its trying to show everyone as islanders and not by racial divisions, while some may want to emphasize those divisions of being like a certain culture it isn’t polite in Hawaii. Just like poke there is no better fish then the other fish cubes, but we as customers are lucky to have so many options of the modest yet mouthwatering food dish that brings many people together. The origins are Hawaiian, the time era it was made was the Plantation, and its popularity is during a time of globalization, so you can’t get any more mixed up than that. The story of Oahu poke is said to have started near the fishing harbors and one notable one would be in the town of Kalihi with the Japanese fishermen families of sustainable long line fishing. It is said that those fisherman are who brought home what are now the classic oahu poke selections of: Ahi Tuna, Aku Tuna, Kijiki Swordfish, Nairagi Swordfish, White Crab, Imitation Krab, Octopus, Shrimp, Mussels, Opihi, and specialty poke selections that are less known: Albacore Tuna, Hebi Spearfish, and Opah Moonfish. The variety of fish reflected the demand of the diverse ethnic group preferences of those from the plantation who had consumed fish and often times saw fish as a way to show social bonding by a way of gifting. The Japanese immigrant ways of sharing gifts from one family to another had gained local importance of reciprocal exchanges of gifts and poke was treated no different.
Oahu had aspired to bring poke to its most casual of form at grocers to the height of gourmet restaurant level food to seek out every way to explore poke through its textures, sauces, and freshness. The textures can be explored through fish eggs of a softer textured masago, crunchier textured tobiko, medium textured kazunoko, along with the addition of sesame seeds, inamona candlenut, limu seaweed, roasted garlic, dried kombu, or furikake. The sauces that are on oahu makes its magic with its variations of light shoyu and dark shoyu to expand on combined flavors for a selection that can allow the eater to really enjoy the fish, such as: Shoyu, Sesame Shoyu, Garlic Shoyu, Ponzu Citrus Shoyu, Spicy Pepper Shoyu (Sriracha), and Sweet Chili Shoyu (Mae Ploy Chili). Other mayonnaise based sauces often times have shoyu and sesame seed oil, like: Mustard Mayo (chinese dry mustard), Spicy Mayo, Wasabi Mayo.
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