Mango Festival in Agat

Little moments I had in Agat at the Mango Festival.

Taffo' clothing company. Taffo' means stubborn in Chamorro. Haha! 

This is my kind of t-shirt.

Cheap rings. I loved this one. It looks like someone opened a flower

and found these precious stones inside. :)

Mango Smooties Demostration. Nuff said.

Coconut crabs eat...coconut.

This was the coolest blue crab I've ever seen. It's shell is so vibrant.

Thanks aunty for making mango doughnuts!

Young green mango and salt. Photo dedicated to my Saipan 

cousins and Maria Astua.

Sweet fresh mango juice.

Curried mango?

The winner: the iguana boy. I freaked out when he walked past me. 

The Mango Festival in Agat happens only once a year. Agat is a little village in the south side of Guam and it's beaches are beautiful! It took us about 25 minutes to get there from our house in Barrigada. This is a treat for locals and military families (the Navy base is located just a few minutes away) - who doesn't love the mango season? 

Titiyas.Kelaguen.Empanadas.

Titiyas = Tortillas

Kelaguen = Ceviche

Empanadas = Empanadillas

Ayuyu = Cangrejo

I'm fascinated with food. Especially Chamorro food, which bares a strong resemblence to Spanish food (there's a strong Spanish influence due to their 300+ year reign over Guam and the CNMI from 1565 to 1899), except it's jam-packed with carbs and sodium - why do the bad things taste sooo good? Here's an example of a chamorro dish - one which my brother and I were greeted with upon arriving in Saipan.

Fried reef fish, chicken, titiyas (or tortillas), rice, finadeni and starfruit ko'ko' (pickled starfruit). The little side dish is finadeni, a staple condiment in the CNMI. It's made of soy sauce, lemon juice (or sometimes made with vinegar, lime juice, lemon powder, etc.) and a red pepper paste (often called tinian pepper, made of crushed red peppers, garlic, water and salt).

My aunt ordered empanadas from a local mom and pop shop. They were so orange - it was blinding! Chamorros make good use of the achote seeds - we use it for seasoning rice, porridge (chalakilis) and as you can see in the photo above, sometimes the color from the rice bleeds onto the empanada wrapping.  

On my last night in the island, we had some of my favorite dishes: coconut crab, chicken kelaguen (similar to ceviche) and papaya ko'ko' (pickled papaya).

There's nothing like indulging in some island goodness in the sticky hot breeze with the dragging wail of an authentic Chamorro song playing in the background. Feels like I'm a kid again.