Taste of The Marianas kicks off with Subway eating competition

The 25th Annual Taste of The Marianas Food Festival officially kicked off last weekend. The main event? A Subway eating competition where Public School System teacher Jeremy Rother came out on top.

Last Saturday, the Marianas Visitors Authority officially opened the 25th Annual Taste of The Marianas Food Festival to the public which will be held every Saturday throughout the month of May.

During the opening ceremony, MVA managing director Christopher A. Concepcion said this year’s festivities have been made more special as joining the celebration are the first tourists aboard the Hong Kong Airlines’ inaugural flight back to Saipan.

“May is our tourism month and what better way to celebrate it than here, as locals and visitors at the Taste. This time last year, we were celebrating with athletes of the Oceania Cup and the Badminton tournaments, but this year, we have here our first visitors from Hong Kong since the pandemic,” he said.

Concepcion recognized his team and MVA partners for the work and support they put into 25 successful years of the Taste of the Marianas.

“Kudos to the MVA team and our partners at HANMI, and all our stakeholders for the last 25 years,” he said.

Following the opening ceremony, at around 7pm last Saturday, MVA hosted the Subway Sandwich Challenge. Essentially what the challenge was was 10 individuals were given one hour to finish five footlong Subway sandwiches.

The winner of the last Saturday’s competition was Public School System teacher Jeremy Rother who, in the nick of time, managed to scarf down the remainder of his sandwich deeming him the champion of the challenge.

Coming in at a close second was Bob Liu who had about one footlong left at the end of the one-hour mark followed by Michael Ma Ye who had about one footlong and a half left at the end of the hour.

The competition seemed easy for the men at first, but toward the last 30 minutes, the men struggled to keep their sandwiches down.

Fortunately, however, no upchucks were witnessed.

The winners will automatically advance to this coming Saturday’s eating competition; the Oh My Grill International Food Challenge.

There, the winners will face celebrity eaters Sang Hyuk Kwon and Sachiyo Masubuchi.

Taste of the Marianas is open to members of the public and will be held at the American Memorial Park every Saturday of May from 5pm to 10pm.

Food and drink vendors will be accepting cards for the first time this year while tokens can still be purchased at the token booth or at the MVA office during weekdays.