Written by Alvin Tang | Photo Cred: Wendy Chan
Just over a year ago a little place opened up near my office. On a narrow street branching off of 3rd Avenue, sandwiched between an interstate tunnel exit and the Consulate General of Romania, it called itself "Sons of Thunder." It was exciting! But upon closer inspection, I became reluctant. It looked like a cheap wannabe Shake Shack with a very familiar logo and identical paper to-go bags. To make matters worse, the burgers and fries were "COMING SOON!" How can you open a place when you can't even serve the item that your logo represents! (which was a burger with a lightning bolt as the patty btw.) It was pretty unbelievable. I completely grazed over whatever the heck a "poke bowl" was. I just assumed it was some cheap 7-Eleven style knock-off of Japanese chirashi. Before long, however, lines began to form, newspaper articles began to surface and a trend began to rise. The Poke Bowl Revolution was upon us. Don't judge a book by it's cover, indeed. I learned to appreciate the poke bowl and Sons of Thunder, but they're still way too overpriced. $10.75 for a relatively small portion + $1.75 for avocado cubes + $0.50 for nori strips? Please...
The idea to make my own first came about when Wendy was on her way back from a trip to her family. She was going to be flying in soon and I wanted to surprise her with something special. I thought maybe a risotto? maybe noodles? No...what's something new? Something ...Japanese? ...sushi? ...chirashi bowl? ...Hawaiian poke bowl! Brilliant! And off to the Japanese market I went. There were so many options for toppings. This time I went for the classics; salmon and tuna (sushi-grade, of course). Then I grabbed some tobiko, seaweed salad, nori strips, and the obligatory bottled tea from the fridge.
Why sushi-grade? What does it mean? Is it just a devious scam employed by supermarkets to sell their fish at a higher price? No! Sushi-grade is key here folks. In a sentence: "Sushi-grade" means fish that have been flash frozen as soon as they're caught on the boat in order to kill any parasites that can make it unsafe to eat raw as well as preserve freshness and texture. Therefore sushi-grade ≠ never frozen. So with my sushi-grade tuna and salmon I decided to go for a sweet soy marinade. It's probably not traditional, but I mean honey soy sauce... come on now... So I went to the sauce cabinet and pantry and reached for some staples: soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin, honey and sesame seeds (white and black).
Another topping that's crucial in my opinion to a poke bowl is tempura crunch. When I ate my first poke bowl, I added it as a side loved the crunchy bits. It's like peeling the skin off of fried chicken and eating it alone like chips. Absolutely amazing. So I had to think of a way to do this at home. A video by Saveur popped in my head that was made in 2012 for their "The Classics" collection. A Japanese chef in NYC named Tadashi Ono demonstrates in a short video of how he was taught to make tempura and briefly introduces this idea called hana sakasu, which means "the blossom of the flower." Such a beautiful way to describe the practice of making tempura fluffier and crispier by dipping your fingers into the tempura batter and holding your fingers right above the pan while drops of the batter would fall onto the tempura adding and extra dimension of crunch. I thought why not try doing this without tempura underneath and just letting the drops fry into crispy bits and it worked.
Assembly was the easy part. I had my fish marinated, tempura crunch freshly fried and avocados diced. Now all I needed to do was put it all over a bed of fluffy Japanese short grain rice that's been seasoned with a bit of rice vinegar. I started off with the fish in the middle first then the rest of the toppings surrounding it in an aesthetically pleasing way. You obviously don't need to follow any particular order. Be creative! Oh and FYI...Sons of Thunder are still waiting for their burgers and fries. *sigh*
Serves 2 | Total Time: 25m
The Ingredients
- 1/4 lb sushi grade tuna filet
- 1/4 lb sushi grade salmon filet
- 1 cup uncooked short grain rice
- 1/4 cup seaweed salad
- 2 stalks of scallions, finely chopped
- 1 small avocado, diced into 1/2 cubes
- 1 tbsp flour
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp mirin (or sake)
- 2 tsp honey
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup frying oil (vegetable, canola, peanut, grapeseed, etc.)
- 2 tbsp masago or tobiko
- 1 tbsp nori strips (optional)
- 1 tsp white sesame seeds (optional)
- 1 tsp black sesame seeds (optional)
- salt and pepper
The Directions
Washing your rice:
Pour your uncooked rice into a strainer fitted over your rice cooker pot and begin filling the pot with cold tap water until the water is barely covering the rice. Aggressively run your fingers through the rice and rub them to remove excess starch from the rice. The water will turn cloudy. Once the water is very cloudy, lift the strainer and pour out the cloudy water. Repeat this process about 2-3 times or until water runs mostly clear.
Cooking your rice:
Pour your clean rice into your rice cooker pot and pour 1 cup of filtered water over the rice. Put the pot into the rice cooker and press start.
Prepping your fish:
Dice your tuna and salmon into 1/2 inch cubes and place into a small bowl. In the bowl add a pinch of salt and pepper, then your soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin and honey. Mix around with your fingers until all of the fish is covered in a thin layer of sauce. Top with your scallions and sesame seeds and mix. Cover and place in the fridge to marinade until ready to plate. (~15 min)
Making tempura crunch:
Heat a medium-sized sauté pan to medium high and add your frying oil. In a small bowl, mix in your flour with 2 tbsp water until well mixed. When the oil is hot, dip your fingers into your flour mixture then hold your hand over the pan allowing the mixture to drip into the oil creating fried bits. Continue doing this with the rest of the mixture. Occasionally agitate the bits so that all sides are evenly fried until golden.
Assembling your bowl:
- Now that your rice is finished cooking. fluff it up with a rice paddle, fork or spoon. Add your rice vinegar and continue fluffing until well incorporated.
- Distribute the rice into two large bowls and make a shallow well in the center for your fish.
- Place your fish into the wells.
- Add your cubed avocado, seaweed salad, tobiko and tempura crunch in any order you want.
- Garnish the fish with nori flakes.