LOW-KEY POKIE (that's what it's all about)

Pokie (poke, poki, pokey—the Hawaiian kind not the Norway kind) is a near total sham. With a sauce based on any combination of red chili pepper, soy sauce, and sesame oil, you could cover up almost anything and it would taste pretty awesome. It's a fairly standard introduction—a "raw fish for beginners"—for those who haven't quite mastered the concept of raw fish but have already developed a liking for fiery spice (and this is becoming increasingly common in Europe, though there's still a high wuss-factor there when it comes to spicy or raw food). If you've been to a sushi restaurant and had "spicy tuna," you are familiar with the general flavor of pokie—that is, more about the seasoning than the fish. Not something I get too excited about, and in restaurants I rarely order it.

Why do I make it, then? Well, I did say it tastes pretty awesome, and it's a really easy—a laid-back (and low-key) way to use fish that is in good enough condition for eating raw (i.e., excellent condition). At some point in the procession of dishes from beginning with raw and unadorned sashimi and ending with pan-seared tournedos de poisson, even my seabass donation from Jeanine gets the Hawaiian treatment.

Pokie is basically a fish tartare, in which the size of the dice of fish may vary wildly. I have had everything from huge chunks to what looked like puree, though a medium dice (a bit smaller than 1 cm) works well for my purposes, which usually involves the use of romaine lettuce hearts or cucumber sticks for spooning up the pokie.

In creating a sauce for pokie the basic needs are soy sauce, sesame oil, and some kind of red chili pepper—traditionally the last part would come from a "Hawaiian red pepper"—whatever that is, keeping in mind that pokie is a relatively recent invention and red Capsicum is just as native to Hawaii as soy sauce and sesame, i.e., not at all. The traditional fish used in pokie is sashimi-grade ahi, or yellowfin tuna, which is native to Hawaii (so at least one ingredient is local).

Beyond the basic three, you can pretty much toss in whatever you want—garlic, ginger, mayonnaise, sugar, lemon, lime, green onions, chives, oyster sauce—this is a very forgiving recipe. Here's what I used for the seabass pokie in the picture: soy sauce, sesame oil, sambal oelek (Indonesian red chile sauce) and sriracha (a.k.a. "rooster sauce") for the spicy kick, lime juice for acid, a bit of mayonnaise for creaminess, and chopped chives for pungency and texture.

Mahalos, dude (or whatever it is they say there).