By Donna Price

dprice@americanpress.com

Story, photos by Donna Price

dprice@americanpress.com

Lake Charles is now home to two Hawaiian-cuisine restaurants: Poké Geaux at 4740 Nelson Road and Poké Deli at 4301 Nelson Road.

So what is poké? Just to be clear, poké has nothing to do with Pokémon, the cartoon-like creatures that originated in Japan in the 1990s.

Poké means “to slice or cut” in Hawaiian and usually refers to chunks of raw, marinated fish. The fish, most often tuna, is tossed over rice and topped with vegetables and sauces.

Poké has been called “the next generation of sushi” or “sushi in a bowl,” and according to the folks at Poké Geaux in the new Kroger shopping center, it’s pronounced PO-kay. Not poke, as in, “I’m going to poke you,” and not pokey as in the children’s dance song, ‘The Hokey Pokey”— but PO-kay.

Poké Geaux opened last week. When my daughter and I dropped in for lunch Tuesday, the little deli was beyond packed. I counted 30 customers, all eager to try out this new cuisine.

The friendly, efficient staff was not missing a beat, in spite of the large crowd. Service was swift and moving along at a good pace.

My daughter had eaten a poké bowl once. I never had. I was a little unsure about eating chunks of raw fish. I need not have worried about not liking it. It was a light, fresh, healthy and great-tasting lunch that made me an instant fan of poké. There is no fishy taste. It’s quite wonderful.

I watched my bowl going down the line as my Umani Classic was being constructed — that’s one of the signature bowls available for when you don’t want to mix and match your own ingredients because you don’t know what you’re doing.

It was a good choice. The Umani Classic has Ahi tuna, purple onion, carrots, corn, oranges, cucumber, sesame seeds and an umami shoyu sauce, and mine was served over coconut lemongrass rice.

My daughter Katie had the Poké Geaux Classic— which is Ahi tuna, sweet onion, cucumber, pineapple, green onion, sesame seeds, roasted sesame oil and Poké Geaux classic sauce. She also chose the coconut lemongrass rice.

Customers are not confined to a poké bowl. There is also the poké roll or the poké salad.

Besides tuna, other protein choices include salmon, scallops, chicken or tofu. A two-protein poke bowl is $11.95. A three-protein is $13.95.

Poké Geaux is open 9 a.m.-11 p.m. every day.

To recap, poké is simply good, healthy food, and like “The Hokey Pokey” song lyrics say, that’s what it’s all about.