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Poke Shop · Raw Fish Salad

Poke

Poke — street food from Hawaii, United States
Photo: Missvain / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

The original Native Hawaiian poke used no soy sauce at all — it was raw reef fish seasoned with sea salt, seaweed, and crushed kukui nut long before soy sauce arrived with Asian immigrants.

Cubed raw ahi tuna is tossed with soy sauce, sesame oil, green onion, and seaweed, then scooped into containers to go from poke counters in grocery stores and food trucks. Countless local variations add spicy mayo, onions, or macadamia nuts.

Why it's made this way: Poke developed from Native Hawaiian fishing traditions and was later shaped by Japanese and Korean plantation-era seasonings unique to the islands' immigrant mix.
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Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.