I really want poke.
It’s a Hawaiian dish.
I was introduced to it by my sister, when we went to a local poke restaurant.
There was white rice, salmon, salmon roe eggs, nori strips, ponzu sauce, an orange aioli, crab meat, avocado, sesame seeds, chopped green onions, fried strips, and caramelized onions.
It was a lovely mess of deliciousness. The salmon looked like glistening jewels on top of the soft, pillowy rice. Everything else was accents to the salmon’s color. The way the avocado creaminess elevated the salmon, which was coated in tangy sauces; How the rice base added texture, the green onions flavor, and how the crab meat just was the cherry on top. The crunch of the nori and fried strips was the perfect amount of crunch in every bite. It was a heavenly mix of foods you normally wouldn’t even think of eating together.
It was one of the most amazing tastes I’ve ever had in my life.
I almost finished the whole bowl, which is a huge accomplishment for me.
I took some home.
When I started to finish the remnants of what I had eaten,
It couldn’t compare to the symphony that was created with all the ingredients. There were a few avocado and salmon pieces with some rice and all the sauces with various other ingredients left. It was a shell of what it used to be.
Once I finished, I stared at the empty bowl in despair.
I wanted more, yet there was none left.
After the pandemic, we ate there again.
It wasn’t the same.
The shortages left out a lot of components in the sauces and some ingredients.
It didn’t taste as good.
I still long for the taste of that first poke again.
I really want poke.
My inspiration for this poem was my craving for poke. At the time, I just really wanted a bowl of poke so what better time to write about the greatness of poke. All I did was look up the origin of poke and some pictures and then I just described my experience trying poke for the first time. I used heavy imagery and anaphora as a few other literary devices. I used short lines for the lines I wanted to make an impact on the reader and used long paragraphs for the descriptions. When we got poke, it was a spur of the moment kind of thing and it was a great decision in the long run.
This piece of writing really triggers the readers need for food, the simile "the salmon looked like glistening dish on top of the soft, pillowy ice," makes the reader picture the poke as bright and delicious. I really liked the sentence "it couldn't compare to the symphony that was created by all the ingredients," as it implies that in order to truly enjoy poke you must eat it with all the ingredients.
--Johnny Figueroa
My favorite lines, "a lovely mess" and "the symphony that was created" made this ode to food feel like a musical piece!
--Ms. Nancy Avila
What I really liked about this writing is how the author used imagery to describe the toppings on the poke bowl. I have tried poke bowl before and I honestly did not like it but the way Celeste described it made me want to try it again.
--Marisela Bello