Barbecue Chamorro Style!

If you think Guam is a sleepy little island - you are mistaken.  Last night I drove down the other half of Tumon beach and was surprised to see a strip that rivaled Rodeo Drive (and I have been there - I am not kidding!)  There was every designer that you can think of AND a Tiffany's!  I couldn't believe it - I mean Guam has better shopping that Chattanooga!  Nashville even!  I may try to go back and get some pictures, but not sure that I want to - it also rivals downtown Gatlinburg on a Friday night before a Vols game.

I am an honorary Chamorro now.  You know how everyone in Hawaii calls each other cousin?  Well it's kind of like that here - everyone is family.  I have been taken in by a Chamorro family and last night I was invited to a family barbeque.  These people are prolific!  I was told that it would just be their immediate family - but there was close to thirty people there!  And they had more food than we have at Thanksgiving - take a look at this:

I felt like Andrew Zimmern on Bizarre Foods - they made me try at least a bite of everything (well there was one thing that just wouldn't get past my lips).  No Chamorro feast would be complete without the rice - but right behind that is breadfruit - it is what they use for starch - it is bland, but accepts seasoning well, so it tasted a little like potatoes - and had the same consistency.  Next is Chamorro sausage (the red stuff on the left) then steak on the right followed by chicken, sea bake (crab, shrimp, fish with seasoning cheese and panko on top).  Next was stuffed crabs (the picture below) and shrimp pancetta.  Scroll down and I will tell you about the last picture.

This is where I get to the bizarre foods - directly above is spinach in coconut milk - not too bad.  To the right is Shrimp Kelaguen - not too bad either - but VERY spicy.  In the middle we have Fish Kelaguen...bad - look close....do you see the little fish eyeballs?  Yeah...that just wouldn't go down...couldn't get past the fish looking at me.  And then last behind that is pork - cooked in it's own blood.  I tried that - it was actually pretty good and the breadfruit complemented it nicely. (Did I just write that?- I sound like I am trying out for a food network job).  All in all it was a fun and interesting evening.  You can see more of my Chamorro family on Facebook.

Today (Saturday) I spent the morning working on a problem at work....but after that decided to drive a little again and went to two more of the War in the Pacific Parks (three more to go) and the Marines Pacific War Museum.  We find ourselves back in 1944 of July.  The Japanese knew the Americans were coming and had planned Banzai attacks (no they didn't hit them with tiny little trees).  A Banzai attack is similar to a Kamikaze attack except that it is a suicidal run without an airplane.  The Japanese were stationed here (see left)- looking out over the beach watching for the Americans.  Once the Marines landed the Banzai soldiers charged - very few survived and there was blood all the way to the beach that day.  These attacks were used by the Japanese army as a last resort but if they didn't die, they killed themselves to avoid being taken prisoner - this was considered honorable.  I wonder how many couldn't bring themselves to actually committing suicide.  Back to the present.....

I headed on up the mountain to the next War in the Pacific park - Fonte Plateau - where the Japanese had a communications headquarters and a rock quarry.  It was the site of another bitter, bloody battle.  I would like to take you back to 1944 again - but I don't have any more details beside what I wrote above.  HOWEVER - it was somewhat interesting in the present day.  When you pull up to this park, there is one sign - it's the usual War in the Pacific

sign telling you that you could be blown up by un-
exploded ammo, call 911, etc. - but that was all.  There is a mowed lawn and two doors in the hill side - I am assuming that is where the communications base was.  One door was locked with a padlock, and the other was open, but the padlock was on the door.  Now to preface what I am about to tell you - I am an AVID fan of the ghost hunter type shows.  I stay up and watch the all night Halloween shows where they are watching for ghosts and I watch the ghost hunter shows on SciFi and the Travel channel....(I also watch all the UFO and Area 51 shows, but that is a close encounter from another blog.) Well this place looks EXACTLY like a place ghost hunters should come.  I mean seriously - where else would be better except where the ghosts of thousands of Japanese and American soldiers would be?  Again I tell
myself that I am never coming this way again - I should see what's in there.  So I walk up to the open door and prepare to enter - it is freaky deaky dark in there - but I walk on in thinking that there is probably a light down the tunnel....nope - none.  At this point it occurs to me that a ghost or human for that matter could close that door and lock me in....so I decide that it would be best to probably stay within sight of the door.  I think back to the TV shows and remember that one of the things they do to see ghosts is just take pictures with their flash in the dark - so that's what I did.  Do you see any ghosts in the picture?  I have to tell you that I was freaked out by this place - I don't know what was on in the tunnel or if it stopped in the room where I was flashing - I have no idea what was in door number two.  I decided it was time to leave....

The other two pics are on facebook, but I am wondering what that white stuff is towards the top.  Seriously, I couldn't see ANYTHING - I just flashed the three pictures and left -I was feeling mighty uncomfortable in there.

My hubby and two brother in laws would be happy to know that I stopped at the Pacific War Museum which is totally dedicated to the Marines.  This is in an aluminum building that was a Marine barracks up until 1992.  There were lots of memorabilia from the Marines and many WW2 vehicles.  I have plenty of pictures on facebook (I know I keep saying that but it takes a while to download them to the blog and most of you are friends on FB anyway).  But there was one display that was very interesting.  Do you remember the episode of Gilligan's Island where the Japanese soldier thinks the war is still going on and has been hiding out on the island?  Well that episode should be dedicated to this man - Shoichi Yokoi - because he was that man.  He and two others found a cave to hide in during the attack in 1941 deep in the jungle.  The other two eventually died but he actually stayed in the cave until some locals found him in 1972!!! He lived in that tiny cave for almost 30 years.  I am going to try and go to the cave next weekend.  It is up around Talofofo falls and I really want to get there - or maybe tomorrow.  So that's all for tonight - you are waking up and I am headed to bed.  Saturday is over for me but just beginning for you....so have a great weekend!


Kristi