Kiki Aranita—celebrated Philadelphia-based chef, writer, fiber artist, and founder of Hawaiian condiment brand Poi Dog Sauces—is coming to Binding Agents in celebration of Lunar New Year to share a thrilling sneak peek into her extensive personal collection of rare, vintage, Chinese-Hawaiian cookbooks. Join us to explore the origins of Chinese-Hawaiian recipes; the techniques and ingredients that reverberate in the cuisine today; the pleasures and pitfalls of cooking from vintage community cookbooks; and fascinating stories tied to these particular books (including some juicy true crime!) from an expert we're lucky to have in our city.
Tickets include a seat for the talk and audience Q&A, a bottle of Poi Dog's signature, hyper-versatile Chili Peppah Water, and a PDF of tested and revised recipes from Aranita's cookbook collection to try at home.
Attendees can also shop the Poi Dog sauces line, including Guava Katsu and Poi Dog Huli sauce, recently reformulated to include Burlap & Barrel's Five Spice. A selection of Aranita's vibrant, handmade fiber arts, crafted with nostalgia for foods (often snacks) tied to periods of her life spent across Hawai'i, Hong Kong, and the contiguous United States, will be available as well.
About the Speaker
Kiki Aranita spent seven years as co-chef and owner of Poi Dog, a restaurant and catering company that served Hawaii’s local food. She closed its Center City Philadelphia location in July 2020 but has kept the brand alive in large-scale pop ups and retail sauces. For years, her goals involved celebrating the underrepresented cuisines of multicultural origins and collaborating with other chefs. She has continued to cook, through chef residencies at Jose Garces’ Volver, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bok Bar and partnerships with the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Marine Stewardship Council, and the Mushroom Council, among many others. She is frequently tapped as a speaker and panel moderator for engagements like the Global Foodservice and Hospitality Conference, Food Tank-organized events, FAB Charleston, and the Terroir Symposium in Canada. She has created content, recipes, and recipe-driven videos for companies such as Hormel’s SPAM (her SPAM Musubirthday Cake went viral), Vulcan Equipment, La Colombe Coffee, Savencia Cheese, Vitamix Commercial, Sakara Life and the Norwegian Seafood Council. Her sauce company Poi Dog has had featured dishes at Fette Sau BBQ, Chopt Salad, and has collaborated with dozens of brands.
Kiki has been a columnist for San Pellegrino’s Fine Dining Lovers (she wrote the monthly column The Next Course) and a frequent contributor to Food & Wine Magazine, for which she was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Media Award in 2022. She is also the 2023 winner of the M.F.K. Fisher Prize (Les Dames d’Escoffier Intl) for food writing and a 2024 IACP winner for contributing to EatingWell’s Heritage Cooking column. Following a stint as the food writer and editor at NY Mag’s The Strategist, she is currently a food writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
[Headshot by Mike Prince]