Pork Belly Adobo Tacos by Kiki Aranita of Poi Dog Philly

Meet Kiki and Poi Dog Philly:
I am the co-owner and co-operator of Poi Dog Philly. We're a food cart that roams around Philadelphia, serving street food grounded in Hawaii food vocabulary. We also cater and vend at incredible concerts and festivals. I grew up in Hawaii and Hong Kong and loving the Filipino food in both places.

Chris Vacca and Kiki Aranita

Current Gig:  1/2 of Poi Dog Philly
Website:  Poi Dog Philly
Facebook Page: Poi Dog Philly 
@PoiDogPhilly:  Instagram / Twitter

Hometown:  Honolulu, HI & Hong Kong
Current Location:  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

What inspires you to make Filipino food?
I am part Filipino. My grandparents live in Waipahu, which has a significant Filipino population and a lot of great Filipino restaurants, so I grew up loving adobo, dinuguan, lumpia and other dishes that I've tried to adapt onto Poi Dog Philly. But it's actually Chris (the other half of Poi Dog Philly) that came up with of our very popular. I introduced him to the Filipino food in Waipahu and he really loved it.


What would your patrons expect when they go to your truck?
We're actually a Hawaii-food based food truck with significant Filipino influences and a lot of Filipino clientele. Our concept is half based in Hawaii food vocabulary (and many of the cultures that implies: Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Portuguese) and half our creations. Since we are a tiny operation (a 4x8 trailer), we've had to adapt many recipes to suit our small grill, fryer, etc, but we want our customers to get a sense of food traditionally served in Hawaii even if it is served on a taco or tamale. And we love variety so we change our menu offerings constantly, while sticking to a few core items: Kalua Pork, Pork Belly Adobo, mochi being some of them.

What is a special memory of Filipino food?
I visit Hawaii and stay with my grandparents in Waipahu several times a year and my grandma and I have a tradition. When I arrive, she always gets me chicken adobo fried rice from Thelma's Filipino Restaurant. When I leave, she takes me to eat Japanese food and then gets me a bento box (or four) for the plane ride home (but that's another food memory). Chicken adobo fried rice has been my welcome-home meal for a very long time.

Who are your professional influences?
Not so much who, but what, I think, are most influential to my business: drive-ins that I grew up going to in Hawaii like Rainbow's and Likelike. Places that serve plate lunches with generous scoops of mac salad. But also little musubi shops like Mana-Bu's and Musubi Iyasume and the convenience stores in Taiwan where you can get all sorts of rice balls and musubi-like snacks. Chris and I are also avid cookbook readers. We try to read everything (thoroughly and obsessively) from community/church/school cookbooks that I get from thrifts stores and swap meets in Hawaii to cookbooks from Momofuku, Mission Street Food, Joe Beef and heck, even Noma.

If you can share your adobo or any Filipino food with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
Antonio Banderas, because I like him.

What makes your adobo so awesome?
We braise pork belly in an adobo-inspired sauce, cut it into cubes and then flash fry it on the cart.

We put it on a corn tortilla with a black bean puree and dress it with pineapple salsa and crispy fried taro. I've never seen anyone else do these things.

What is a food you miss from Hawaii which you can eat pretty easily there but cannot on the mainland?
I really miss poke and all its many variations. Here on the mainland, I have to make my own poke. I have an awesome fishmonger so the poke turns out great and fresh, but I'd like to be able to walk into a place like Alicia's or Poke Stop or Tanioka's and just buy a whole bunch of poke.

Photo by Yoni Nimrod

Pictured Right:  Poi Dog Philly's Saimin - braised pork belly adobo, kamaboko, green onion, 6-minute egg, beef dashi broth

How important is it for you to pass on the love for Hawaiian food to future generations?
Extremely important but with the awareness that half of our food at Poi Dog is based in Hawaii drive-in type food and half comes from our own ideas of what tastes good. So "extremely important" comes with a couple caveats -- those future generations are here on the mainland and not necessarily in Hawaii and our food is not completely typical of Hawaii. On the other hand I'm fascinated by real traditional Hawaiian cuisine (even if I don't really serve it) and its associated methods and I'm very eager to learn more about ingredients and dishes that are indigenous to but uncommon in Hawaii.

Where do you think Filipino food will go in the next few years? 
It definitely needs a place in Philadelphia, where there are no Filipino restaurants, so I sincerely hope it will gain greater footing here.

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