I am really enthusiastic about poke because it means eating raw fish. Eating raw fish is GOOD. Especially tuna which is fit only to be eaten raw.
Originating from Hawaii, it’s a salad/starter/appetiser of raw fish, sliced (which is what ‘poke’ literally means in Hawaiian… hang on a second - is that even a language? my ignorance clearly shows through*) and garnished not too much, with seaweed mostly. Great idea - no need for the formality of sashimi, you can have some rice with it but you don’t have to, the key thing of course is that the fish must be SPANKING fresh.
American recipes sometimes quote FDA’s precaution if the fish is fishy: freeze it for at least 24 hours, thaw and eat. I’m not entirely sold on it - if you buy your fish from a reliable and sustainable source who you can actually ask about its journey to your shopping bag, and you’re a Fearless Eater - don’t bother. More harm in my view might come from thawing it later - the defrosting liquid must make nice breeding grounds for all sorts of nasties. Mind you - the ‘sashimi grade’ label the fishmongers proudly display is BS, unless you are in Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market.
It really needs just a common sense approach: are you worried? Don’t eat raw fish (or meat) at all. Do you like raw fish and think you’ve bought a reasonably fresh beast? Chop it, slice it, sprinkle with sesame and enjoy it.
*but not so much - it IS a language, derived from Polynesian family. There is also Hawaiian Pidgin (who would have thought it’s from that part of the world?) and Hawaiian Creole but that’s a slang rather than a language in its own right.