Decade-old Poke Contest
Debuts in San Francisco

August 2002

Breaking news for all you Food Network fans (we know you jus' watch 'em fo' Iron Chef!) – Wolfgang Puck wen rip off one classic Hawai'i food favorite in his recipe for "Tuna Tartare on Fried Potato Gaufrettes." On Fried Potato wot!?

No joke, brah. Search foodtv.com for this recipe and check out the ingredients, or "ingredaments" as Rap Replinger's character Aunty Marialani would say. Kay den, let's see: the recipe calls for small, diced raw ahi tuna, minced green onions, sesame oil and soy sauce.

Wot dat sound like to you? Das right, gangies. Poke.

Poke (and it's pronounced poh-kay, not poh-kee, like Gumby's orange companion - jus' say 'em like you speaking Japanee) is, in fact, a variation of tuna tartare, but call it that to a kama'aina and you're likely to get a blank stare.

Canadian culinary expert Nathan Fong beautifully describes the most common variation of poke as "buttery rich cubes of scarlet hued tuna, marinated with finely chopped onions, sesame oil, shoyu and chopped ogo (farmed seaweed from the North Shores of O'ahu)." Nicely put, bruddah. (Eh, no ask us why we wen decide fo' quote one Canadian. Get one deadline and das da one wen show up on Google.)

There are actually hundreds of different styles of poke. And this is not a recent phenomenon. In fact, ten years ago, the quaint Big Island town of Waimea hosted the first Poke Recipe Contest. It's rumored that of the five entrants in that first contest dropped her poke dish on the way to the judging table and renown chef Roy Yamaguchi whispered to the next judge: "Psst. Eh, we go eat 'em anyway." Spoken like one true local boy.

Following its humble start in 1992, the event has experienced a literal explosion of entries and today, the once small competition has evolved into the annual Sam Choy Poke Festival, running an entire weekend. Since 1995, it has been hosted by the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, on the magnificent Kohala Coast of the Big Island, and now includes an invitation-only golf tournament, a concert of Hawaiian music, and the poke contest finalists.

This year's Festival takes place September 13th through 15th, with more than $15,000 in cash and prizes awarded to winners in nine categories: Best Cooked Poke, Traditional Poke and Poke with Hokkigai, Hot Sauce, Macadamia Nuts, Ogo, Shoyu, Surimi and Tofu.

For the very first time, the Festival will welcome an entry from the Bay Area. The inaugural Aloha Shoyu Sam Choy Poke Festival at Da Hukilau (5 Masonic, on the Southwest corner of Geary & Masonic, San Francisco), on Saturday, August 31, will serve as a qualifying contest for the Hapuna Prince Festival. The winner at Da Hukilau event will automatically be a finalist in the September poke contest on the Big Island, and will receive free round-trip airfare and a stay at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel. An no fo'get, one chance fo' win da big prize.

The San Francisco festival begins at 11:00 a.m., and ends at, well, wen evah all da people stay full. Goin' get live music, Hawaiian merchandise, raffles and, of course, planny food.

Poke recipes must be submitted by August 21 online at http://www.hukilau.tv/pokecontest.html or by fax. A maximum of 25 finalists will be selected from all the entries and the finalists will be asked to prepare and bring their poke for tasting and selection by celebrity judges (Maybe da Two Japanee Bruddahs? Or maybe not).

Just to make things more interesting, Da Hukilau will also be sponsoring a Spam Musubi Eating Contest that same day. Entries for this contest can be e-mailed to bigkahuna@hukilau.tv, with your name, e-mail address, telephone number and an estimate of how many spam musubis you think you can eat in three minutes. Six people will be selected for the live contest.

Us guys, da Two Japanee Bruddahs, going e-mail our entries in. Kyle can eat ten spam musubis in three minutes and Keith can eat at least 12 (maybe). No tell nobody, eh, but we get da secret fo' win dis kine contest.

Okay. So, wen day stay blow da whistle, or da conch shell or wotevah dey going use, you take da first musubi and rip da spam out from the rice. Eat da spam. Den go to da second one. Rip da spam from da rice and eat da spam. Repeat until you hit da two minute mark.

In the remaining 60 seconds, grind all da rice. Das it. You win. Bettah bring da kine Pepto-Bismol.

If you get one mo' bettah strategy, e-mail us at wot@twojapaneebruddahs.com.

A hui hou!

Sam Choy will also be the celebrity chef at the 27th Anniversary Celebration of API Legal Outreach (formerly Nihonmachi Legal Outreach) on October 4 at the Nikko Hotel, with ABC7 News' Thuy Vu and slack key guitarist and vocalist Patrick Landeza. Call (415)567-6255 for more information.

Keith Kamisugi and Kyle Tatsumoto, two local boys from the Islands spreading da aloha in the Bay Area, are da Two Japanee Bruddahs.

 

Chef Sam Choy