How Jordan Mailata helped get this Hawaiian sauce into the Linc — while raising money for Maui

After moving to Philadelphia, Niki Mailata, who is Tongan, was overjoyed to find a Hawaiian restaurant in the city, Poi Dog. She and her now-husband, Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata, are Pacific Islanders, and it’s hard to find authentic Pacific Islander cuisine on the East Coast.

Enter Kiki Aranita, founder and owner of Poi Dog. Aranita is from Hawaii and opened Poi Dog in Philadelphia, serving her spin on Hawaiian cuisine. The Mailatas quickly fell in love with the restaurant, which began in 2013 as a food truck on Temple’s campus and became a brick-and-mortar space about five years later, and were frequent guests until Poi Dog closed in 2020 during the pandemic.

But they continued to follow Aranita. Niki frequently attended her pop-up events, and when Aranita launched her Poi Dog sauces, the Mailatas were some of her early supporters. They enjoyed the sauce so much that Jordan, an ambassador for Australian food truck G’Day Gourmet, brought her Huli Huli sauce to G’Day Gourmet owner Mike Peacock, and a collaboration was born.

“I didn’t realize my flavors would reach as large an audience as they have, especially after closing the restaurant,” Aranita, who also has contributed to the Food section at The Inquirer, said. “I would have thought I would have served more people out of the walls of the restaurant, but with the sauces, it’s a much wider audience, and it’s so exciting to see other chefs work with it.”

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G’Day Gourmet’s new collaboration with Poi Dog combines Aranita’s Huli Huli sauce with barbecue pork and pineapple juice to make a Maui BBQ meat pie. Starting at Thursday night’s open practice, the pie will be available at G’Day Gourmet, located behind Section 111 of Lincoln Financial Field, and a portion of proceeds from the pie will go toward families impacted by the Maui wildfires in August 2023.

“It’s a mix of what we both love,” Niki said. “The Polynesian flavor is amazing, and Australian street pies are just delicious. This might be a weird comparison, but I grew up loving Hot Pockets, barbecue Hot Pockets were the best, and this is like the most luxurious Hot Pocket.”

Growing up in Australia, Jordan has a longtime love for meat pies, an Australian comfort food, and as soon as he connected with Peacock and G’Day Gourmet and tried their pies, he was hooked.

Jordan became a brand ambassador for G’Day Gourmet and even pitched Peacock a custom meat pie based on one of his favorite foods — butter chicken, which is now G’Day Gourmet’s best-seller, named after Mailata.

“I was like, ‘That’s impossible. There’s no way. I’ve never had or seen that before in my life,’” Jordan said. “Long story short, Mike reached out to my cousin, who’s a chef in Australia, and they created a recipe together. They went back and forth, and it’s top tier.”

If you order from G’Day Gourmet at the Linc this season, make sure to eat the pie with your hands. Jordan said when many Americans first try the meat pies, they ask for a fork and knife, but Peacock doesn’t provide one automatically. They’re trying to teach everyone how to eat them like an Australian.