Pokeworks, the fast-casual poke eatery that rose to prominence after its 2016 sushi burrito video gained traction on-line, launched plant-based tuna to its menu solely on the firm’s Irvine restaurant beginning Wednesday, June 28.
“We wished to search for extra sustainable choices for our menu by providing plant-based gadgets, however typically they have been by no means ok,” says Michael Chen, president and cofounder of Pokeworks. “If it doesn’t style good then we’re not going to hold it, however the one we discovered tastes nice.”
The corporate landed on Affect Meals, based in 2021 by UC Berkeley graduates, which makes a speciality of sushi-grade plant-based tuna that mirrors the bluefin selection. Along with being the world’s most consumed fish, bluefin tuna stays one in all our most endangered, in line with the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Whereas efforts have been made to protect the species, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch listing nonetheless recommends avoiding it.
Affect Meals’ soy protein-based tuna mimics bluefin’s delicate but complicated taste — which runs the gamut from umami, candy, and salty — by way of seaweed. Pokeworks menu affords quite a lot of methods to make use of their new vegan tuna, together with poke bowls and the aforementioned burrito.
The chain, which has 65 areas all through the US, hopes so as to add much more plant-based choices to its menu (it additionally sells tofu for the vegan-minded), together with the potential of working with Wildtype, a San Francisco-based firm that produces cell-based salmon.
Discover it: Pokeworks, 15333 Culver Drive (at Irvine Heart Drive), Irvine
