Avocado Poke Boats Are the Ultimate Summer Mashup Food

The biggest restaurant trends of recent memory are about to collide in New York's Union Square neighborhood. PokéSpot will grandly open at 120 4th Ave. on Friday with a signature dish called an "avocado boat," Gothamist reports. This meal is pretty much what it sounds like: half an avocado, pit removed, filled with a choice of protein, two toppings, and sauce. It's a trendy take on the poke bowl, pulling in a touch of last year’s big hit: avocado toast. This is what it's like when worlds collide.

PokéSpot’s concept is based on the famous Hawaiian dish poke (pronounced poh-kay), and fast-casual restaurants with a poke focus have been springing up all around the country. Raw fish in a bowl serves as a one-course meal, the great friend to fast-casual and on-the-go eating that is catching on with American diners.

At PokéSpot, as at many of these poke restaurants, the bowls are customizable, with a base of rice, salad, zucchini noodles, or a burrito wrap. Diners can opt to add a main protein of tuna, salmon, chicken, tofu, shrimp, or snow crab. Toppings such as sesame seeds, seaweed, and rice puffs, along with a final choice of sauce, can further augment an individual's order.

The avocado boat isn't just an opening-day gimmick, either: It's a permanent fixture on the restaurant's menu. It remains to be seen whether PokéSpot's move to merge America's favorite food trends will result in one mega-trend, or perhaps the total implosion and ultimate nullification of each. If PokéSpot really wants to push the envelope, it will lean in hard to this nation's current obsession with Pokémon Go. A Pokéstop at PokéSpot? Surely this would result in culinary dominance heretofore unseen.

• New Union Square Poke Restaurant Opening With 'Avocado Boats' [Gothamist]
• Bowls Are the New Plates [WSJ]
• Top Food Trends of 2015, According to the Internet [E]