In the South, collards are a staple side dish, but they’re also a New Year’s Day tradition: My Meemaw (my East Texas grandmother) always made collard greens, black-eyed peas, and cornbread for New Year’s Day. Every single year, without fail: greens for money, peas for luck in the coming year.

Right before the Covid lockdowns started a couple of years ago, we were starting to see “poke” shops popping up everywhere around here. If you’re not familiar with it, poke (pronounced poh-KAY) is a Hawaiian dish of raw fish served with soy or sesame oil …