{"id":203378,"date":"2015-06-04T06:00:28","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T20:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=203378"},"modified":"2015-06-04T06:00:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T20:00:28","slug":"17th-annual-taste-of-the-marianas-closes-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/17th-annual-taste-of-the-marianas-closes-strong\/","title":{"rendered":"17th Annual Taste of the Marianas closes strong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 17th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &#038; Beer Garden closed out its final night on Saturday, May 30, with the largest crowd yet gathered to join a full night of entertainment and the highly anticipated Chefs Competition.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-203378 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/17th-annual-taste-of-the-marianas-closes-strong\/taste-of-the-marianas-pix1\/'>Taste of the Marianas pix1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-203383'>\n\t\t\t\tJJ Concepcion and Tru Marianas performed at the 17th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &#038; Beer Garden on May 30, 2015. (MVA)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/17th-annual-taste-of-the-marianas-closes-strong\/taste-of-the-marianas-pix2\/'>Taste of the Marianas pix2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-203385'>\n\t\t\t\tHopwood Jr. High School\u2019s Simiyan Nina\u2019la performs at the 17th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &#038; Beer Garden on May 30, 2015.\n(MVA)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/17th-annual-taste-of-the-marianas-closes-strong\/taste-of-the-marianas-pix3\/'>Taste of the Marianas pix3<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-203386'>\n\t\t\t\tRoast pig of D\u2019Elegance Caf\u00e9 and food and beverages from 17 other vendors were featured at the 17th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &#038; Beer Garden on May 30, 2015, on Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. The event is held every Saturday during May Tourism Month. (MVA)\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/17th-annual-taste-of-the-marianas-closes-strong\/taste-of-the-marianas-pix4\/'>Taste of the Marianas pix4<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-203387'>\n\t\t\t\tThe entry of Marianas Resort &#038; Spa claimed 2nd place in the Chefs Competition on May 30, 2015, at the Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &#038; Beer Garden. The annual signature event is jointly organized by the Marianas Visitors Authority and the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands. (MVA)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/17th-annual-taste-of-the-marianas-closes-strong\/taste-of-the-marianas-pix5\/'>Taste of the Marianas pix5<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-203388'>\n\t\t\t\tJunior chefs of local hotels presented their best \u201cMarianas Albondigas\u201d at the Chefs Competition at the 17th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &#038; Beer Garden on May 30, 2015, in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. Fiesta Resort &#038; Spa claimed 1st place, followed by Marianas Resort &#038; Spa in 2nd, and Hyatt Regency Saipan in 3rd.\n(MVA)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/17th-annual-taste-of-the-marianas-closes-strong\/taste-of-the-marianas-pix6-copy-copy\/'>Taste of the Marianas pix6 copy copy<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-203389'>\n\t\t\t\tEntertainers young and old of the Polynesia dance group Alana Ia perform at the 17th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &#038; Beer Garden on May 30, 2015.\n(MVA)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>\u201cIn all, the Taste of the Marianas was another great success this year,\u201d said Marianas Visitors Authority Community Projects manager Martin Duenas. \u201cWe thank all our partners, especially the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands and the National Park Service, for joining our staff in putting together another great festival this year.  There\u2019s a lot of work happening behind the scenes, so the enthusiasm of the community for the Taste is very rewarding for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Top winners in the competition pitting hotel junior chefs against each other were Nestor De Vera and Eduardo Gabito of Fiesta Resort in first place, Rommel Villaviza and Arnold Capuliof Mariana Resort &#038; Spa in second place, and Chelsea Cummings and Hannah Strong of Hyatt Regency Saipan in third.  In a nod to the Marianas\u2019 rich Spanish history, this year\u2019s theme of the Chefs Competition was \u201cMarianas Albondigas,\u201d featuring Certified Angus Beef Chuck Ground. Chefs also created their own fresh sides that will include local starches such as breadfruit, sweet potatoes, yam, or plantains. Entries were judged on appearance of the beef, tenderness\/texture, and presentation of theme. The winners received cash prizes from the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands and Certified Angus Beef products.<\/p>\n<p>The Taste of the Marianas brings some of the best of island cuisine and entertainment to American Memorial Park every Saturday evening beginning at 6pm in May as part of the month-long celebration of Tourism Month in the Northern Mariana Islands. <strong>(MVA)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 17th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &#038; Beer Garden closed out&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":203383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4985,5036,1094,121],"class_list":["post-203378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-chefs-competition","tag-martin-duenas","tag-national-park-service","tag-northern-mariana-islands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}