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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Havaí
Cubed seasoned raw fish, a dish of Hawaiian origin. In the best-known recipe, ahi tuna is seasoned with shoyu, sesame oil, onion, limu seaweed and ʻinamona, made from roasted kukui nut.
Traditional dish from Havaí
Also known as: poke de ahi, ahi poke
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Poke — Havaí, the United States
Poke means “to cut into pieces” in the Hawaiian language, and the name describes the dish: raw fish cut into cubes and seasoned right away. Long before Europeans arrived, island fishermen already ate raw fish with sea salt, limu seaweed and ʻinamona, made from roasted and ground kukui nut.
From the late 19th century, Japanese, Chinese and Korean immigrants who came to work on plantations added shoyu, sesame oil and scallions, and ahi tuna, caught offshore, became the most used fish. The name poke for this preparation became established in the 1970s.
In Hawaii, poke is sold by weight at fish counters and supermarket counters, in various versions: with shoyu, with chili, with octopus, with salmon. It appears at family gatherings, on beaches and at Sunday lunches, as a snack or over a bowl of rice.
Raw fish, usually ahi tuna; sea salt, limu seaweed, ʻinamona (roasted kukui nut); in modern versions, shoyu, sesame oil and onion.
Chilled, as a snack, or over white rice in a bowl; sold by weight at fish counters.
Year-round; common at family celebrations and beach gatherings.
Your questions
It means “to cut into pieces” in the Hawaiian language. The dish is made of raw fish cut into cubes and seasoned.
Ahi tuna, caught offshore. Before it, Hawaiians used reef fish.
At fish counters in markets and supermarkets, where it’s sold by weight in various seasoning styles.
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