Poke, excellence, randomness

I have been watching a bunch of webinars about newsletters lately. At first they were going to revamp the newsletter at work and then when they decided against that project, I ended up with this personal one to use some of my learnings, and then I was already on the self-education/webinar train so I’m still doing it. It’s pretty interesting. When I started blogging seriously (as opposed LiveJournalling for my pals) I made a similar effort to learn a bunch of blogging theory (so to speak) before quickly settling into an “it’s all for me and my pals anyway” vibe and doing it exactly how I did LiveJournal, even though the blog is public and allegedly a part of my writing “career,” as is this newsletter. This is how I’ve always done all social media, which is fun for me and people who like me, but I don’t have a very wide reach.

The webinars are about how to get a wide reach. People who do newsletters—at least people who go to webinars about doing newsletters—are not chill about having a few hundred subscribers and enjoying that. They want thousands, tens of thousands, and they want them both monetized and now. It’s a business, in a direct, clear way that Twitter and blogging never exactly was. I always knew lots of people kind of hoped to go viral on Twitter or Insta or TikTok, but in service of what it was never quite clear to me. What happened post-virality, is the question? Did people get rich from that…somehow? Not that I ever had aspirations of answering that question for myself. This is the piece of content I created that came the closest to viral status so far in my career. I’m fine with that…I think?

If virality is not in the stars, do I want this newsletter to be more than a friendly funzone but actually some sort of professional development? I’m not saying I do, but I’m just saying if I do—I could actually listen to some of what the webinars are saying instead of just watching them for entertainment value like an episode of New Girl.

What do they say? Well, they say to post regularly, which I was doing great on, mainly Sunday/Mondays and Thursday every week until last week when I completely whiffed on Thursday because I didn’t have anything interesting to say and was tired. There is a good tip to know your audience, which I certainly think I do—at this point I think I know the vast majority of y’all personally—hi, pals!—and if I don’t I’d be happy to get to know the few new names on this list. Feel free to get in touch and we can chat! Or I will do a survey. I QUITE enjoy surveys. That is another piece of advice, and it seems like good advice although I bet my survey is going to be more pet focused than it is supposed to be.

The other advice is to know what your readers are interested in and write for their tastes. I feel like I sort of know that and I can find out more in the survey, but also…how will you know I can write what you want? How will I know? If I haven’t written it yet? Today, for example, is a recipe for poke that I think I invented by not wanting to pay $18 at the Hoki Poke restaurant anymore and then googling a bunch of stuff. And a random retro conversation with Mark. Plus the above meta-newsletter navel-gazing. So possibly you could have seen this coming but…could you? Enough to write it on a survey?

Fairly Illegitimate (Non-Hawaiian) but Tasty Poke

I first had poke when I was in Japan in 2009, which makes sense since it’s a Japanese-influenced Hawaiian dish. It reached Canada a few years later and I was delighted to see it again. My favourite version is at a quick-service place on Yonge called the Hoki Poke, which is admittedly a dumb name but a nice place. They use black rice (which is actually purple) and the sweetheart staff does not really speak English—I have no idea what they do speak, so communication is limited. I have had fancier versions in nice restaurants, which are good too but not as good as the version I had in Japan, or the Hoki Poke, or the kind I make at home. I have never been to Hawaii so I don’t know how legit any version is, but I know that when I was in Paris in 2022, any bowl of many things—quinoa, humus, veggies, chicken—was called poke so the term is getting weird, as all trendy things eventually do. It’s quite easy to make at home with only a couple esoteric ingredients and you don’t have to turn on the oven or, if you have a rice cooker, even the stove. And it’s the prettiest dish I know how to make, as you can see in the photo above, so it’s good for company. And, as I say, one of my faves, so…there’s that.

Ingredients
¾ cup dry sticky rice per person
2 tbsp seasoned rice vingegar per person (also called sushi vinegar)
½ cup frozen edamame per person, thawed (get the shelled kind)
some nice brightly coloured fresh veg cut in matchsticks (I like carrots, red peppers, cucumbers, and avocado, but you do you)
a handful of spinach per person (optional)
nori
sesame seeds (optional; pretty much everything in the recipe is optional)
a bit of nice chopped up fish (more on this) or smoked tofu

Cook the sticky rice according to the package on the stove or in the rice cooker or however you do that; if you don’t have a sticky rice setting on your rice cooker, you can just use the white rice setting. If you do not want to buy sticky rice or forgot, you can use whatever rice and it will be fine, but sticky rice or sushi rice is better in this dish. When then the rice is cooked, leave it to cool as much as you have patience for.

When I first learned to make this dish, I read a bunch about how you were going to wreck the shape of the rice if you tried to season it warm but either this concern was overstated or my palate is not that refined; either way, if you run out of time, just add the vinegar whenever and stir it in very gently with a flat paddle/spatula.

You really have to used seasoned rice vinegar for this dish—plain rice vinegar or another vinegar is going to taste weird and nothing is going to taste bland. It’s easy to find in most groceries or you can make your own. I used this recipe and I have to say it is fantastic though I made it in my kitchen and not on a mountaintop. It took ten minutes. The store kind is good too.

While all this rice stuff is going on, matchstick whatever vegetables you are using so that they look cute and uniform. If you are using spinach, put a handful in the bottom of each dish. Get out your fish. For years I used chopped up smoked salmon or cold shelled shrimp for this dish; both are great! Obviously the most legit version is raw sushi-grade fish but I’m not super-comfortable making that judgement so I don’t. Costco actually sells little packages of marinated poke salmon and poke tuna and they are very nice though wildly expensive so that is an option. Or you could just go to the fish market and buy raw fish and chop it up if you know what you are doing. Use my old fave, smoked tofu if you want it to be vegan.

When you have everything ready, put the rice in the bowls/over the spinach. put a handful of edamame peas, and then a handful of each kind of matchstick vegetable each in their own section, plus the fish. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bits of nori that you have slivered with scissors. Serve with light soy sauce and more nori. And that’s it! So good and takes like twenty minutes to make if you have a strong plan and the vinegar is pre-made!!


And finally, a facebook memory from the olden days, Mark’s birthday in 2019:

We had a very tiring and intense and ultimately delightful weekend, but it ended with late-night grocery shopping and basically just wanting to lie down in the frozen-food aisle and be left for dead. But I persevered and located a broom where before the Frescho only carried mops, which was great because we need a new broom.

RR: Look, a broom!

Mark: Great, the old one is ruined.

RR: Hooray! (attempts to put broom in cart)

MS: Uh, the cart is kind of small and crowded--can't you just carry it?

RR: In my hand?

MS: Yes?

RR: All through the store?

MS: We're almost done.

RR: Oh my god.

(another ten minutes of shopping)

MS: Ok, I think we're done, let me just check the list--oh, we forgot olive oil. Can you go get it?

RR: With the broom?

MS: Yes, I just have to get one other thing.

RR: Oh my god. (departs, returns with olive oil) Here.

MS: Thanks.

RR: I'm married to the broom now.

MS: Ok.

RR: ...

MS: What?

RR: It's Stockholm Syndrome. We spent too much time together.

MS: Let's go home.

(later that night, in bed)

RR: I love you.

MS: I love you, too.

RR: Let's get married.

MS: Ok.

RR: I have to divorce the broom first.

MS: Ok.

RR: But how? What should I do about my illegitimate second marriage?

MS: Can you please just let me sleep? I thought you were tired too?

RR: How can I sleep when we're locked in an weird throuple with the broom?

***

STAY TUNED FOR THE SURVEY!!