{"id":253614,"date":"2017-06-02T06:06:03","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T20:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=253614"},"modified":"2017-06-02T06:06:03","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T20:06:03","slug":"final-taste-expands-culinary-explorations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/final-taste-expands-culinary-explorations-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Final \u2018Taste\u2019 expands culinary explorations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-253614 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\/final-taste-expands-culinary-explorations-2\/taste-pix4-5\/'>Taste-pix4<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-253619'>\n\t\t\t\tAntonio Agulto Jr. of Hyatt Regency Saipan shows off his first place dish in the Chefs Competition at the 19th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival and Beer Garden at Garapan Fishing Base, Saipan, on May 27, 2017. (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\/final-taste-expands-culinary-explorations-2\/taste-pix6-6\/'>Taste-pix6<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-253620'>\n\t\t\t\tAli\u2019i\u2019s Polynesian dance group entertain the crowd at the 19th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival and Beer Garden at Garapan Fishing Base, Saipan, on May 27, 2017. (MVA)  \n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>The final night of 19th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &amp; Beer Garden highlighted the culinary ingenuity of some of the best up-and-coming junior chefs in the Marianas.<\/p>\n<p>The annual Chefs Competition, jointly organized by the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands and Triple J Five Star Wholesale Foods, was held on Saturday, May 27, and featured live cooking on-site for the first time.  <\/p>\n<p>Antonio Agulto Jr. of Hyatt Regency Saipan won first place. In second place was Sonny Encarnacion of Kanoa Resort, while in third place was Vicente M. Montoya of Fiesta Resort &amp; Spa Saipan.<\/p>\n<p>Junior chefs from participating hotels were challenged to prepare a dish using this year\u2019s featured cut, bottom butt flap.  Chefs also selected local vegetables and herbs from Garapan Public Market, with at least two items incorporated. The top three winners won cash prizes, trophies, certified Angus beef items, and the opportunity to participate in this year\u2019s CNMI Next Top Chef competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBottom butt flap is an interesting name for a cut of certified Angus beef that has a wonderful meaty flavor and fine texture when carefully prepared,\u201d said Triple J Five Star Wholesale GM Jay Santos.  \u201cWe\u2019re excited with what the junior chefs came up with to feature this increasingly popular cut.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThis year we explored some new ways of making \u2018Taste\u2019 even better than ever,\u201d said Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Christopher A. Concepcion.  \u201cWe have the Chefs\u2019 Competition live for the first time onsite, we added live competitions for kadun pika [spicy chicken] and barbecue pork ribs, and we had live demonstrations of making apigigi and titiyas.  Of course, the entertainment was diverse and exciting.  I have to commend our MVA team and our partners for really putting together a great event enjoyed by visitors and residents alike.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd we\u2019re not done creating opportunities for people to explore the Marianas with their taste buds. The MVA has something else brewing\u2026\u201d Concepcion added cryptically. <\/p>\n<p>Fourteen food and three beverage vendors participated in the MVA\u2019s annual signature event, which featured international cuisine at affordable prices from hotels and restaurant vendors, non-stop live entertainment on the main stage, nightly contests on the secondary stage, and arts and crafts sales.  <\/p>\n<p>Participating food vendors were Fiesta Resort &amp; Spa Saipan, Hyatt Regency Saipan, Kanoa Resort, Mariana Resort &amp; Spa, Herman\u2019s Bakery, D\u2019Elegance Cafe, Furusato Restaurant, Thai House, Tropical Chills, Sierra\u2019s Pearl Shake, Sweet Escapes, Matty\u2019s BBQ, Tony Roma\u2019s\/Capricciosa, and Kinpachi Restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>Winners of the student \u201cSee My Marianas\u201d Graphic Art Design Contest were also announced on the main stage at 8pm. The contest challenged students in grade 6-12 to use graphic design to promote their favorite sites in the Marianas. (MVA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The final night of 19th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &amp; Beer&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":253619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[4985,17044,233,212],"class_list":["post-253614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biba-marianas","tag-chefs-competition","tag-final-taste","tag-hyatt-regency-saipan","tag-mva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253614","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}