{"id":36261,"date":"2014-05-21T07:00:45","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T21:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=36261"},"modified":"2014-05-21T07:00:45","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T21:00:45","slug":"week-3-taste-marianas-blast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/week-3-taste-marianas-blast\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 3 of Taste of the Marianas a \u2018blast\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-36261 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\/week-3-taste-marianas-blast\/taste-4-2\/'>Taste-4<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-36266'>\n\t\t\t\tParticipants of the Balloon Popping Competition for ages 14-and-under take a commemorative photo during the Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &amp; Beer Garden on May 17, 2014. Seated from left are first place winner Miku Kimura and second place Maya Shimizu. Standing second from left is third place winner Miles Timmons. (Contributed Photo)\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\/week-3-taste-marianas-blast\/taste-6-2\/'>Taste-6<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-36268'>\n\t\t\t\tParticipants of the Balloon Popping Competition for ages 15-and-up during the Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &amp; Beer Garden on May 17, 2014, on Saipan. Seated from left are first place winner Wheng Javan, second place winner Rustine Valico, and third place Ezeth Smith. (Contributed Photo)\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\/week-3-taste-marianas-blast\/taste-3-2\/'>Taste-3<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-36265'>\n\t\t\t\tCanton Restaurant and 15 other food and beverage vendors serve up dinner and dessert at the 16th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &amp; Beer Garden on May 17, 2014, on Saipan. (Contributed Photo)\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\/week-3-taste-marianas-blast\/taste-1-2\/'>Taste-1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-36263'>\n\t\t\t\tMariana Resort &amp; Spa and 15 other food and beverage vendors serve up dinner and dessert at the 16th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &amp; Beer Garden on May 17, 2014, on Saipan. (Contributed Photo)\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\/week-3-taste-marianas-blast\/taste-5-2\/'>Taste-5<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-36267'>\n\t\t\t\tParticipants of the Balloon Popping Competition for ages 15-and-up during the Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &amp; Beer Garden on May 17, 2014, on Saipan. (Contributed Photo)\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\/week-3-taste-marianas-blast\/taste-2-2\/'>Taste-2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-36264'>\n\t\t\t\tTropical Chilla\u2019s and 15 other food and beverage vendors serve up dinner and dessert at the 16th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &amp; Beer Garden on May 17, 2014, on Saipan. (Contributed Photo)\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\/week-3-taste-marianas-blast\/taste-7\/'>Taste-7<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-36269'>\n\t\t\t\tCAB Dancers perform a Palauan dance during the Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &amp; Beer Garden on May 17, 2014, on Saipan. (Contributed Photo)\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\/week-3-taste-marianas-blast\/taste-8\/'>Taste-8<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-36270'>\n\t\t\t\tTeka Naha Nui performs a Polynesian dance during the Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &amp; Beer Garden on May 17, 2014, on Saipan. (Contributed Photo)\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\/week-3-taste-marianas-blast\/taste-9\/'>Taste-9<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-36271'>\n\t\t\t\tTeka Naha Nui performs a Polynesian dance during the Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &amp; Beer Garden on May 17, 2014, on Saipan. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>A balloon popping competition delivered a \u201cblast\u201d at Saturday\u2019s 16th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival &amp; Beer Garden at American Memorial Park.<\/p>\n<p>The event is held every Saturday evening beginning at 6pm in May as part of the monthlong celebration of Tourism Month in the Northern Mariana Islands, delivering some of the best of island cuisine and entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>Revelers joined two heats of the Balloon Popping Competition. The first heat for ages 14-and-under was won by Miku Kimura (first place), Maya Shimuzu (second place), and Miles Timmons (third place), who all sat on balloons as quickly as possible to discover the winning tickets. The second heat challenged competitors ages 15-and-up to inflate and pop five balloons the fastest. In the second heat, Wheng Javan finished first, followed by Rustine Valico in second, and Ezeth Smith in third.<\/p>\n<p>This upcoming Saturday\u2019s Taste will feature the Bartenders\u2019 Cocktail Competition at 8pm at the secondary stage.<\/p>\n<p>The Marianas Visitors Authority, the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the National Park Service jointly hosted the annual event. Taste of the Marianas offers international cuisine at affordable prices by 16 hotels and restaurant vendors, non-stop live entertainment on the main stage, nightly contests on the secondary stage, and arts and crafts sales.<em><strong> (MVA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A balloon popping competition delivered a \u201cblast\u201d at Saturday\u2019s 16th Annual Taste of the Marianas&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":36263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[268,121,894],"class_list":["post-36261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biba-marianas","tag-american-memorial-park","tag-northern-mariana-islands","tag-tourism-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36261","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=36261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}