Homemade Poke Bowl Adventure

I sat down outside with the precious paper boat and began to dig into a long-awaited food truck poke bowl with wooden chopsticks.

The serving didn’t look like much: a sushi rice mound with furikake sprinkles, lightly pickled cucumbers, and glossy pink raw ahi tuna cubes dressed in spicy mayo. Not particularly photogenic. Yet this modest version is my favorite.

After a rough spring, I kept thinking back to that day spent outdoors with family, listening to music, beautiful flowers blooming, savoring each cool bite.

That particular Hawaiian food truck is hard to find so I’ve only had their poke bowls at an annual festival in the South Bay twice. The closest brick-and-mortar places selling poke offer more toppings, but aren’t quite as tasty.

I’d seen the specialty so regularly on various television shows that it felt familiar, but my first few poke bowls in Colorado were underwhelming and overpriced. For years that’s all I knew, even outside the landlocked state. One West Coast place even surprised us with bitterly bolted cucumbers.

Poke — or poké — comes from the Hawaiian for “cut pieces.” Much like salad and pizza, poke serves as a canvas for creating personally delicious fare. Add whatever you desire: lettuce, mango chunks, pineapple pieces, fresh jalapeños, tofu, beets, shredded carrot, edamame.

Living near excellent Korean markets that sell sushi-grade fish inspired me to pore over the food truck’s photo gallery to try reverse-engineering their poke. Despite my inclination to pile on tasty elements — Homemade crab salad! Fresh fish roe! Where’s that recipe for tempura crunchies? — the simpler, the better.

My focus became dialing in the spicy mayo-coated raw fish, just-right sushi rice, and lightly pickled cucumber pieces. I drew from Keeping It Relle’s spicy ahi poke recipe and Kathy’s simple Japanese pickled cucumbers. On the first go, my sauce was too sweet. On another, an English cucumber stood in for Persian cucumbers.

While tinkering with the recipe, salmon from two different stores didn’t pass the sniff test at home so I substituted tofu at the last minute. It was…okay. After that, I hit a wall. Temperatures soared. The AC broke. Then Guillaume brought us to the friendly, unassuming poke eatery in San Jose we like, which served as a nice reset. Back at home, contemplating the recipe again, I looked in the fridge.

“We don’t have any tofu left, just hotdogs. Wait. Oh my god, can we have this with hotdogs?” The truck also sold Spam musubi so maybe this idea wasn’t completely crazy. And you know what? Grilled hotdogs in spicy mayo were surprisingly good.

That magic food truck really did take me on a wild trip.

South Bay Poke Bowls

Serves 2

Approx. 14 oz. fresh highest quality sushi-grade fish*
1 C. sushi rice
1⅓ C. water (see note below)
2 small Persian cucumbers
1 ripe avocado, pitted and sliced (optional)
Fresh lemon juice, salt, freshly ground pepper (optional)
Sesame seeds (optional)

Rice seasoning:
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
½ Tbsp. white sugar
½ tsp. salt

Spicy sauce:
¼ C. mayonnaise
2 tsp. sriracha
1 tsp. low-sodium soy sauce
½ tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. rice vinegar
Pinch of salt
Several fresh chives, minced

Cucumber seasoning:
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
½ tsp. white sugar
Generous salt sprinkle

*Can substitute a package of extra firm tofu, dried with paper towels, cut into bite-sized rectangular pieces, seasoned generously with salt, fried in a little neutral oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until lightly browned on all sides, and finished with a drizzle of low-sodium soy sauce. Allow to cool before mixing with the spicy sauce. Or substitute four grilled hotdogs cooled slightly and cut into bite-sized discs.

In a medium-sized lidded sauce pan, add the sushi rice and corresponding water amount based on the package directions. With the brand I got, 1 C. rice and 1⅓ C. water made enough for two. Mine said to bring the water to a boil with the rice then set heat to low, cover, and cook for 20 minutes, and set off heat for 10 minutes. Fluff the rice and allow to cool for at least another 10 minutes more.

In a small saucepan or mini skillet, combine 2 Tbsp. rice vinegar, ½ Tbsp. white sugar, and ½ tsp. salt over medium heat. Stir until dissolved and set aside. Stir the seasoning into the warm sushi rice.

In a small bowl, combine 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar with ½ tsp. white sugar to dissolve. Rinse, trim, and cut the Persian cucumbers into ½-inch discs. Add them to the vinegar-sugar mixture and generously sprinkle salt over them to taste. Stir to coat the slices thoroughly.

Make the spicy sauce: In a medium glass mixing bowl, add the mayonnaise, sriracha, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, a pinch of salt, and minced chives. Stir together until the sauce is uniform in texture. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

Cut the sushi-grade fish into bite-sized pieces and add them to the sauce bowl. Stir to combine.

To serve, divide the sushi rice evenly into two large bowls. Use tongs to add the lightly pickled cucumber slices to each bowl, leaving excess vinegar behind. If using an avocado, carefully pit it, slice it, and put half the slices in each bowl. Sprinkle the avocado slices with a little salt, ground black pepper, and a lemon juice squeeze, if desired. Divide the spicy raw fish into the two bowls and sprinkle some optional sesame seeds over the top.