Kelaguen, raw meats, green onions, donne peppers cooked with citrus and served with tatiya

Tianaktak, finely ground meat cooked in coconut milk with vegetables

Estufao, a stewed meat dish similar to Kaddon pika

Apigigi, roasted coconut in a banaa leaf

The cuisine of the Mariana Islands is largely made up of meat dishes, including pork, poultry, and meat from other land mammals. Some popular land animals consumed include Mariana fruit bat.^[1] Guam and the Northern Marianas split in 1899, when Spain transferred Guam to the United States but the northern Islands to Germany (later occupied by Japan), and so there are many similarities, especially the Chamorro food culture.

Like in many other archipelagos, the islands' surrounding waters make seafood another popular option. Some seafoods include sea cucumbers, and various fish. It is said that the Mariana Island's cuisine is heavily influenced by its neighbors Papuan, Hawaiian, and American cuisines. The Mariana's cuisine is very international, with many dishes, such as Korean kimchi, Filipino pancit^[2] and Spanish empanadas being enjoyed on the islands.^[3]

Some of the most well known local specialties are kelaguen, a Chamorro dish consisting of chicken, shrimp, fish or beef marinated in a mix of lemon juice and fresh coconut,^[4][5] red rice made with annatto^[6] and kå'du fanihi, a soup made of fruit bat or flying fox^[7] and Guyuria cookies.^[8]

Apigi is a Chamorro dish in which roasted coconut is wrapped in banana leaf.^[9] A traditional ingredient of Chamorro food is a variety of spice-hot chili pepper called the donne sali.^[9] This pepper, thought to have been introduced by the Spanish in the 1600s (Chili pepper is native to the Americas), grows wild on Guam and the Northern Marianas. It is a type of Capsicum frutescens and is very popular part of the culinary aspects and food culture of the islands.^[10](see also List of Capsicum cultivars) It is also commonly eaten by birds which have spread it around the islands, and is also called a Boonie pepper.^[11] The sauce made from this pepper is called Fina'denne', and is a staple condiment of Chamorro dishes. Translated, it simply means "made from donne' ", the Chamorro word for chili pepper.^[12] The sauce finadenne can be made with soy sauce and vinegar (dark finadenne) or with lemon juice and vinegar (white finadenne).^[13] The white finadnne sauce is used in making Chamorro cured beef called Tinala' Katne.^[13]

The canned meat Spam is extremely popular in the Marianas and Saipan.^[14]

Guam is also the highest per capita consumer of Tabasco sauce in the world.^[15]

The islands are home to many types of restaurants, with Korean, Japanese, Thai, American food, often serving a mix of styles.^[16][9] (see also Fusion cuisine)

List of traditional dishes:

• Chalakiles
• Estufao
• Fina'denne'
• Guyuria
• Kaddon pika
• Kalamai
• Kelaguen
• Latiya
• Roskette
• Tinaktak
• Tinala' Katne^[17]
• Apigigi

References

See also

• List of Oceanian cuisines
• Culture of Guam