It is like sushi without all the bother — and it is coming soon to a sandwich bar near you.
Until a few weeks ago, no one in Britain but a few hardcore foodies had ever heard of poke, pronounced “poh-kay”, the new raw fish craze from Hawaii.
Now, in a classic example of how food trends can go from obscure to mainstream in the blink of an eye, it is about to hit the high street. Poke is usually a mix of raw cubes of fish — often tuna, but salmon is common — marinated in a soy sauce dressing and served in a bowl with rice and garnishes.
Guy Jackson and Celia Farrar brought it to this country last year with their Eat Poke stall, which trades at lunchtime markets in London. They also do private events.
“We came across it a couple of years ago in Los Angeles,” Mr Jackson said. “It was a tiny little vendor, a hole in the wall. You pick up a bowl, and go and sit on the beach and eat it. It’s a really lovely experience. More recently we’ve been back to Hawaii and met the forefathers of it.
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“We just fell in love with it, not just because it is a more relaxed version of sushi, but because there is this underlying healthy aspect. It’s lots of mega-rich fish, lots of salad, lots of rice. We primarily use salmon, but we also use British fish like mackerel.”
He said that they had tweaked the classic Hawaiian version of marinated fish, rice, seaweed, kukui nuts, salt and sesame oil by adding pickles, wasabi slaw or wakame salad - carrots, radishes and wakame seaweed.
In a few weeks it will be appearing in Pret a Manger in the form of a mushroom and avocado sushi salad, which includes marinated mushrooms instead of fish, with avocado, rice, pickled cabbage and poke dressing.
Hannah Dolan, a Pret food developer, said: “It’s easy to see why poke salads are getting attention — the Hawaiian dish is bright, fresh and vibrant.”