{"id":1901,"date":"2016-05-18T22:42:36","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T22:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/food\/poke\/"},"modified":"2016-05-18T22:42:36","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T22:42:36","slug":"poke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/poke","title":{"rendered":"Poke Pop-up Takes Up Residence At Rose Park Roasters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Photos by Asia Morris.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s having its day,\u201d said Mychael Henry of the growing pok\u0113 trend in Southern California.<\/p>\n

Henry is the local responsible for Poke [as in to poke with a stick; rhymes with “joke”]<\/em>, a pok\u0113 [rhymes with “okay”]<\/em>\u00a0pop-up restaurant that opened at Rose Park Roasters last month. It\u2019s arguably one of the more peculiar culinary relationships seen to date in Long Beach. The thought of raw fish paired with coffee might strike some as curious, but so far the combination is catching on, with a nod toward the 4th Street coffee house for keeping \u201cthe process\u201d interesting.<\/p>\n

As with a previous pop-up that sparked the city\u2019s culinary curiosity six months ago\u2014when Wide Eyes Open Palms took up residence at Sura Korean BBQ & Tofu House<\/a>\u2014Long Beach has a love for supporting its roving entrepreneurs, and Rose Park Roasters is no stranger to the concept.<\/p>\n

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RELATED<\/small> <\/p>\n

Long Beach’s Wide Eyes Open Palms Marries Craft Coffee with Korean Cuisine at Sura <\/a><\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\u201cInitially the combination seemed strange to have pok\u0113 served in a coffee shop, but it was an interesting sort of strangeness and we felt that Mychael’s simple but sophisticated approach to pok\u0113 did pair really well with our approach to coffee,\u201d said Rose Park Roasters co-owner Nathan Tourtellotte. \u201cWe love creating culinary tension between the rugged and the refined, and both pok\u0113 and coffee work really well in the tension of that dichotomy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t Henry\u2019s first jaunt into the pok\u0113 business. He first opened Poke in 2009 when he lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and had a fruitful five-year stint serving the traditional Hawaiian appetizer, as well as kebabs, out of an expat bar on Wednesdays. Henry says Poke was the first pop-up restaurant to land in the South American nation, with the name \u201cPoke\u201d coming from the sticks the kebabs were served on. Now Henry is solely sticking to pok\u0113, and seeing where it takes him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re called Poke, we serve pok\u0113,\u201d he explained. \u201cPok\u0113 just means ‘to cube,’ it\u2019s a Hawaiian word, so anything can be pok\u0113. You could cut up a watermelon and call it pok\u0113. It\u2019s not [just] the fish product, it\u2019s the act of cubing something.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Henry describes what he creates, a dish influenced by more than a couple cultures, as \u201chapa\u201d\u2014the same word he uses to describe his own ethnicity. Hapa, short for hapalua, is a Hawaiian pidgin word used to primarily describe \u201ctraditionally someone who is Asian and Caucasian mixed,” Henry said. “And then I have black in me, too.”<\/p>\n

Each bowl shows off a Hawaiian and Southern California influence, put bluntly, pok\u0113 with a Mexican flair, as Henry adds an artful swipe of sieved avocado on the side of each bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up here in Long Beach and West Covina,\u201d said Henry. \u201cIt\u2019s just what we grew up eating. Hapa food is becoming really popular now.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that lucrative half-decade serving pok\u0113 in a country known for its asado<\/em>, or traditional beef barbecue, Henry lived in Hawaii for two years, while, albeit from a distance, keeping an eye on how the dish was trending on the mainland. Now with Poke at Rose Park Roasters, Henry\u2019s isn\u2019t the first locale to bring pok\u0113 to Long Beach, but his twist on the traditional Hawaiian blue collar food, attention to detail and love for its origin make his work stand out.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Classic is straight Hawaiian style,\u201d he said of the first menu item. \u201cIt\u2019s just Maui sweet onions, your fish and a little bit of sesame oil. That\u2019s just a really nice, clean flavor and a really good introduction. And then we started changing it up; the House Special is the one that I\u2019m known for. It has mango in it and cucumber and ginger, and it\u2019s just an explosion of flavors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on the menu is a Sriracha Aioli bowl, with ahi, Maui sweet onion and scallions and a Vegan bowl, with enoki, shiitake, tofu and maruso. All dishes are served over your choice of brown or white sushi rice, making what is traditionally an appetizer into more of a hearty meal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that I really love about poke is it\u2019s like sushi,\u201d Henry iterated. \u201cWhenever you have sushi you always feel really good afterward. Part of it is you\u2019re getting such a protein kick, and that\u2019s the way I feel about pok\u0113. It\u2019s really healthy and people feel really good afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Henry\u2019s pop-up isn\u2019t your Chipotle-style pok\u0113 buffet where an employee crams a hodge podge of ingredients, that may or may not pair well, into a bowl for you to sift through and digest accordingly without a care for the food\u2019s origin. Henry, who grew up eating the dish, is thoughtful and concise in his execution of each order.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day it was a simple recognition that Mychael cares about the same culinary principles we care about: dreaming up simple concepts that can convey [a] complex culinary experience, always letting the quality of the ingredients speak for itself,\u201d said Tourtellotte.<\/p>\n

Big picture, Rose Park Roasters is aiming to create their own food program with a semi-seasonal approach, says Tourtellotte. They\u2019ve tapped into Long Beach\u2019s culinary talent before, with Kat McIver of Wide Eyes Open Palms lending her culinary talent and baking prowess to the shop. Now, Poke has given Rose Park Roasters the impetus to develop a couple of non-coffee beverages, including their Cascara Tea Cocktail, made with bitters, cucumber, lemon, caramel and basil, a match made in foodie heaven with Henry\u2019s signature House Special.<\/p>\n

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\u201cExecuting a great food program is no easy task, particularly when many of us who work at Rose Park are foodies and we want to do something we can be really proud of, something that will stand on its own right as reason to visit our shop,\u201d Tourtellotte\u00a0continued. \u201cWe’re taking the slow route so that whatever we end up doing it’s consistently delicious and exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poke will remain at Rose Park Roasters for three more weeks, two days a week, on Fridays from 11:00AM to 3:00PM and Saturdays from noon to 4:00PM. Follow the pop-up on Instagram @poke.co<\/a> and its owner Mychael Henry, also on Instagram,\u00a0@cookwilltravel<\/a>. For more information about Rose Park Roasters, visit the website here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rose Park Roasters is located at 3044 East 4th Street.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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