Tanioka's Onion Poke

So here is my first entry. I'm just trying to test out the different possibilities for layouts here. Here's a pic of the divine onion poke from the famous fish market Tanioka's in Waipahu. It's a nice 5 minutes drive from my office, so sometimes when I come in on the weekends, I treat myself to a nice scoop of this shoyu ahi (maguro or tuna for all you non-Hawaii residents). Notice how red the fish is, shiny almost like little jewels....

Mmmm. This onion poke has a wonderful flavor, salty with a little kick...round onion slices, chopped green onion, minced garlic, shoyu....and of course what poke would be complete without a nice helping of sesame oil. I think that's what gives it that nice shiny finish and makes it perfect for photographing. Well, let's see how this looks with they layout.

[EDIT] Ooh, I like....I think this is okay for now. Anyway, for the adventurous who wants to attempt this dish....It's really simple. While it's not Tanioka's you can easily make poke at home.

1. Start with a nice cut of fresh ahi. Make sure it doesn't smell too fishy. You want it to be really red. And in case it's not immediately obvious, no bones. This is like cubed marinated sashimi. So clean, rinse, and cube the fish. I like them around the size of a soda bottle cap--like 3 cm cubes. Chuck those into a bowl--people tell me you shouldn't stick it in a metal bowl, so yeah. Listen to them...just in case.
2. Mince a couple of cloves of garlic and green onions and slice about a quarter to half of a round onion. Chuck those in there too.
3. Roughly chop up a handful of ogo/limu (type of seaweed). If you don't like harder types of seaweed, wakame works well too. If you get the dehydrated stuff, put it in some hot water to rehydrate, and roughly chop. Toss into mixing bowl.
4. Put in several tablespoons of sesame oil and about a quarter cup of shoyu (soy sauce). You can add red chili pepper flakes for a nice kick (a pinch or two should do it).
5. Toss lightly, cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator until ready to serve. I usually leave it in there for at least 20 min, so that the onions can soak up some of that flavor.
6. Serve either as pupus (appetizer) or over some nice hot rice.

Keep refrigerated or on ice. Best consumed within 24 hours. (Though my dad sometimes cooks it the next day to salvage the leftovers)

Best part about this recipe, is that you can easily adjust it to your tastes. If you have strong Japanese soy sauce, you may want to put less, but local Aloha shoyu or American brands, you may want to add more. You do not need salt for this recipe. That's what you have the shoyu for. Though if you were somehow unable to get your hands on some good soy sauce, you could use a coarse salt like Hawaiian salt, sea salt, or kosher salt. Don't like seaweed or onions? Leave 'em out.

Tanioka's Spicy Ahi

This is the mini spicy ahi from Tanioka's. It's basically spicy maguro tataki with onions over a bed of furikake sushi rice. It is fantastic. This is the mini and it a good size--as Steff suggested, about the size of those Japanese instant microwave rice packs you can buy at the 100 yen shop or at the convenience store. It's slightly smaller than the length of a chopstick and the width is about one-third the length of a chopstick. It comes out to about $4 with the tax, but it is delicious. I would have to say easily one of the best recipes on the island. You cannot beat Tanioka's. It's always fresh and delicious. There are so many flavors going on when you take a bite of this mini bento. The sharp bite of the onions, the spicy kick of the sauce, the subtle saltiness of the fish melding with the large flakes of furikake, and the sweet and sourness of the sushi rice. I like comfort food, but I also appreciate the complex flavors of a simple dish like Spicy Ahi.

I think the Honolulu Star Bulletin ran a Spicy Ahi recipe awhile back, let's just google him and see....Found him:

So mix together:
1 c. mayonnaise
1/4 c. chile pepper sauce
1/4 c. Kochujan miso sauce
1 T. sesame oil
1 T. shoyu

My coworker also told me that her cousin adds tobiko and chili sesame oil (I think that is la yu...but don't hold me to it.) You can mix it with maguro tataki to get something like Tanioka's or take a carrot stick sized log and make a temaki out of him. Spicy ahi is similar, but not poke. Poke is usually cut into cubes, whereas spicy ahi is usually in tataki form. I suppose you could have cubes, but I think the tataki is better. I would say poke is usually more shoyu-salty, whereas spicy ahi, although it has the spicy kick, is more creamy and sweet in flavor--probably from the Kochujan sauce, which people tell me is the key to making good kim chee soup.

Now that I think about it, this may have been the sauce that I always drowned my ishiyaki bi bim bap (I just learned it is called dol sot bi bim bap, as I read it on the menu at the Korean restaurant down the hill from my house) in when the Hibun gang used to frequent the Nobune restaurant by Nihon Terebi in Ichigaya. Hmmm.... Steff, I think I may have found our mystery sauce!