Poke’ sashimi at the Bottom Time grill

A fish is a fish is a fish.
Right and wrong. Fish, prepared in a thousand and one different ways is still fish but prepared and served in different flavors and dippings satisfy your taste buds in different ways.
It was past 9 p.m. and I was relaxing in the cozy atmosphere of the Bottom Time Bar & Grill, chatting with Sam’s Tours owner Sam Scott and wife Martul, manager Dermot Keane, Palau Shop owner Thomas Shubert and buddy Bert when the dish of sashimi was set on our bar table.
The Poke’ sashimi, Bottom Time’s special appetizer came in a white, boat-shaped plate. (everything about the place is related to the sea…) Even before tasting it, I instantly guessed it was excellent-slices of raw yellow fin mixed with bits of tofu, a sprinkling of onion leaves, sesame seeds, spices and special ingredients that makes the taste unique to Bottom Time bar. It was a bit spicy, not much but just enough to tingle your taste buds and keeps you longing to eat more. The sashimi could be taken as it is, already flavored, or you could dip it in wasabi  paste or soy sauce with lemon to enhance the flavor.
Maltul said Poke’ is a Hawaiian dish which takes from five to ten minutes to prepare. She said wahoo fish could also be used aside from yellow fin.  It goes well with various drinks.
With Palau’s abundant marine life, it takes only one’s creative imagination and expertise in the kitchen to come up with recipes that would lure customers to come back again and again.
Poke’ sashimi is a perfect appetizer, indeed, and reasonably priced at $6 per serving. Poke’ sashimi, Maltul says, is available at the Bottom Time Bar & Grill seven days a week, from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Bottom Time Bar & Grill also serves different breakfasts, salads, daily specials, appetizers, fish and chips, other favorites, sandwiches, all served with fries, side orders like toast, egg, ham, pancakes, hash browns, French toast and beverages.
(Oh, one thing though. Don’t translate Poke’ into Tagalog, it means an entirely different thing…)