By Raul Dias
Kekaulike Market in Honolulu in Hawaii’s Chinatown may not be anything to write home about, with its dank, smelly interiors that reverberate with the cacophony of fishmonger calls and other assorted sounds. But within its cavernous bowels it holds a secret few outsiders are privy to. Dishing out probably the best poké on the Big Island, Maguro Bros. has a perpetual queue of prospective patrons lining up at its nondescript Formica-topped counter.
And it was there at Maguro Bros. that a few years ago I had an edible epiphany of sorts when I dug into my very first bowl of a traditional Hawaiian poké (pronounced poh-kay). Simply put, a mélange of soy- and sesame oil-marinated raw tuna cubes served atop hot sushi rice, poké is rather erroneously classified as a ‘salad’ on menu cards across the world.
Unable to find a desi doppelganger worthy of comparison, I had almost given up hope of ever tasting anything that came close to that poké. All that changed when I recently chanced upon Chef Manu Chandra’s iteration, which he serves with his own unique twist at the New York East village-style casual eatery Toast & Tonic in Bengaluru’s Ashok Nagar. Eschewing the traditional sushi rice for the short-grained and sticky Gobindobhog variety from Bengal, Chandra risks the poké purists’ wrath with aplomb.
He takes further detours by sending his rather transcendent chilli-tossed tuna poké off to the table anointed with a passion fruit and pineapple vinaigrette, a halved, beetroot-pickled boiled egg and fresh avocado cubes—all of this garnished with micro mustard greens, shards of nori (dried Japanese seaweed), fried onions and a sprinkling of the very au courant chia seeds.
(This column first appeared in the 19th February 2017 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 8 http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/chillitossed-tuna-pok/article17324871.ece)
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