They’re as ubiquitous as Starbucks. Within a 5-mile radius of my Orange County home, I’ve counted at least 15 poke establishments. And every time I see a marquee advertising poke, I can feel my face flushing, reacting to my deep annoyance, because the word is so often incorrectly spelled “poké,” “pokey,” “poki” or some other abomination. It is poke. And it’s Hawaiian, rooted to the Indigenous people of the Islands. It deserves respect by being properly acknowledged.

Poke, the traditional Hawaiian raw fish dish, blew up in the mid-2010s, a surge some trace to a New York Times article. The dish became famous in New York and California, packing restaurants. Soon, other restaurants opened, spreading it across the country. Now all I see are misspelled poke restaurants serving salad bowls across California. 

The “A Hui Hou Bowl” from the popular Poke Guys in downtown Toronto, Canada, comes with crab meat slaw, edamame, seaweed salad, fried onions and sesame seeds, Sept., 19, 2017.

Hawaiian ahi tuna poke plate at McKenna’s on the Bay in Long Beach, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013.

The dish many restaurants are calling poke, from California to New York and around the world, is so far removed from traditional Hawaiian poke that I believe it shouldn’t even carry the name. In many cases, it appears these businesses are capitalizing on cultural appropriation, hoping to profit from the popularity of a Hawaiian dish while ignoring its cultural meaning and origins.

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The commercialization of Hawaiian culture has been rampant ever since people realized they could exploit it for profit, and it is continuing to modern times. It wasn’t that long ago that Chicago restaurant Aloha Poke Co. tried to trademark the words “aloha” and “poke.” Another company, Hawaiian Bros Island Grill, trademarked “aloha spirit” last year.

As a part-Native Hawaiian, I grew up........

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