While serving as a chef last fall at the Food Forever Experience in the Poconos, an event centered around the United Nations goal of ensuring biodiversity in the future of agriculture, Kiki Aranita made a “massive batch” of chili pepper water with the varied ingredients she was provided.
The staple Hawaiian condiment is often made in-home on the island by combining freshly picked peppers with vinegar and garlic or sugar, said Aranita, whose family has lived in Hawaii for five generations. Aranita's variation was more akin to a combination of hot sauce and vinegar. The concoction had a strong following at her Center City concept Poi Dog, which shuttered in July 2020 due to Covid-19.
In the Poconos, Aranita collaborated with friends in the food manufacturing sector to bottle and sell sauces. They walked her through the process of working with co-packers, manufacturing, and bottling shelf-stable products.
Aranita is now producing her own "Chili Peppah Water," crafted with Hawaiian sea salt and seasonal Pennsylvania peppers. She worked with Drexel University's Food Lab to derive the sauce’s manufacturing formula, and is collaborating with the Food Innovation Center at Rutgers University to create a Maui Lavender Ponzu sauce. Production of that offering is somewhat on hold, Aranita said, as ongoing pandemic-induced supply chain issues drive up the price of the yuzu juice she sources from Japan.
Aranita recently had a third sauce begin production: a guava katsu blend similar to the one served with the chicken katsu dish at her Poi Dog food truck. That sauce, which is being made with a Florida co-packer, is vegan — Aranita replaced the Worcestershire sauce and chicken stock with white miso and mushroom powder. Initial production will yield 80 gallons of sauce, which will be carried by Zingerman's Delicatessen in Michigan.
The other sauces are available online and at many Philadelphia outlets including Vernick Wine, Herman’s Coffee, Di Bruno Bros. and Art in the Age, as well as stores in New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Georgia and Oregon. Many are requesting Aranita craft a togarashi yuzu mayo, which she said she’ll consider next.
Aranita is self-funding the project, putting revenue back into the business, and is selling up to 30 cases of wholesale product per week.
Testing began in November with an initial small batch released around the holidays. Since then, Aranita has worked to grow the retail line in addition to teaching about Hawaiian food and culture at Penn Museum, serving as an adjunct instructor at the Drexel Food Lab, doing chef residencies at spots like Bok Bar, and traveling to places like Atlanta for pop-up events.
The Poi Dog restaurant was one of the first local eateries to shutter during the pandemic. The business had a catering and food truck arm, for which Aranita said she “handed back thousands upon thousands of dollars” in security deposits for events canceled because of Covid-19.
Poi Dog secured less than $15,000 in emergency aid money, which Aranita said was enough to sustain only about a week of operations due to extenuating circumstances like months of back rent. She projected sales for the remainder of Poi Dog’s lease, she said, and there were no good scenarios. Ultimately, keeping the restaurant open wasn’t financially viable.
Aranita hopes to keep the Poi Dog brand alive, albeit reinvented, through the sauces. Her restaurant and food truck were rooted in “discovery,” meaning it never did much advertising and largely attracted diners via word of mouth.
“It was casual and it felt like a gem when you found it,” Aranita said. “I want the sauce to be in places like that. I want to be connected with people who own places that feel like gems of discovery.”
