Poke was born as a dish of raw fish, but what made the world love the bowl was not the fish; it was the idea. One vessel holding warm rice, fresh vegetables, a tender protein and a bright sauce; a little of everything in every spoonful. The Japanese tradition of donburi 丼, the rice bowl meal, leans on the same idea: a well-built bowl is a whole table in itself.

When that idea came ashore, it met chicken. Sweetened by the smoke of the grill and coated in the dark gloss of soy and sesame, chicken lent the bowl’s sea-born spirit an unexpected warmth. The soy sauce that Japanese plantation workers once added to fish in Hawaii does the same quiet work here on chicken; the bridge between the two kitchens is the sauce itself.

The chicken poke bowl is a door into the bowl for those who keep raw fish at arm’s length; for poke devotees, the same melody played on another instrument.

The balance is the same balance. The sea just watches from the shore this time, that is all.