Please Read
Who Owns a Condiment — a Company or a Culture?, Food and Wine, April 2024
Here’s the follow up: Short of Going on ‘Shark Tank’, How in the World Do You Get Your Product Into Stores? Food and Wine, January 2025
There Is Something Primal About Our Love for Cups, Food and Wine, February 2024
Pandora’s Liquor Licensing Box — Serving Alcohol in Pennsylvania is Prohibitively Expensive, So What Are We Gonna Do About It? Good Beer Hunting, February 2024
Here’s the Difference Between Hawai’i’s Local Food and Hawaiian Food, Plus How Spam Fits Into All of It, Food and Wine, November 2022 (this one won the MFK Fisher Prize from Les Dames d’Escoffier Intl 2023)
How It Feels to Close Your Restaurant For Good, Food and Wine, August 2020 (this one is a finalist for a James Beard Media Award 2022)
The Fine Art of Asking a Chef to Donate to Your Event or Fundraiser, Food and Wine, May 2022
Secrets of a Professional Palate, Food and Wine, October 2021
Butter Mochi Will Help You Win Every Potluck, Food and Wine, October 2021
Big Food Features
American Truffles Are Right Under Your Nose and They’re About to Be Everywhere, Food and Wine, May 2024
From Ancient Rome to New Nordic: The Interrupted Legacy of Garum, Fine Dining Lovers, January 2022
Sham Spam: Prettified and de-porkified, Hawaii’s favorite musubi is adapted for halal fine dining, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, April 2020
Congee: The Ultimate Comfort Food, Edible Philly, March 2020
For The Guardian’s Our Unequal Earth
Stained, warped and terroir rich: the global and shockingly sustainable lives of wine barrels, May 2025
Arsenic and old sugarcane: cleaning up Hawaii in the fallout from wildfires, The Guardian, August 2024
‘Sugar is brown!’: there’s more to the sweet stuff than its pure white version, The Guardian, May 2024
Hawaiian scientist quests to find and save the state’s distinctive sugarcanes, The Guardian, April 2024
Mascara, smoothies, T-shirts: I spent a day (and $500) on seaweed products, The Guardian, December 2023
For The Guardian’s The Filter
I tried 17 rice cookers to find the best model in the US: here are my favorites, July 31, 2025
Why the humble rice cooker might be the only appliance you need in your kitchen, July 31, 2025
By Coconut Aranita
Dog Menus are Popping Up Across the Region. Here Are the Best, According to this Philly Dog, Philadelphia Magazine, August 2023
Inside Brewerytown’s New Off-Leash Dog Restaurant From a Pup’s Perspective, Philadelphia Magazine, February 2024
Other Features
What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About the Michelin Guide, Philadelphia Magazine, January 2024
Kiki Aranita's Adventures in Vintage Cookery, The Cleaver Quarterly, Issue 5: Summer 2015 (pdf of Get Kitsch Quick)
The Hawaiian word lu'au can mean three things: a gathering or celebration, the young leaves of the kalo (aka taro) plant, or a dish made with those leaves, coconut milk and sometimes chicken or squid. This recipe is a version of the latter from chef Kiki Aranita, made with collard greens, which are easier to find on the mainland. This lu'au recipe makes a generous amount, but you won't regret it since it holds beautifully—you can even freeze it so you have a nutritious side dish at your fingertips.
A SPAM® Musubirthday Cake with Munchies/Vice, August 2020
Get Kitsch Quick, The Cleaver Quarterly
An essay for Food and Wine
Thanksgiving 2020 and a recipe for Shoyu Ahi Poke
Diners are lining up for Philly cheesesteaks -- in Bahrain. Words and photos for the Philadelphia Inquirer
A tiny Lunar New Year celebration making spring rolls during the pandemic.
Other Projects
Sabbatical Beauty’s Kiki Seaweed Mask, Summer 2020 Skin Collection
How to Make Coffee Chocolate Haupia with La Colombe, July 2020