“When folks come right here, they typically ask us, ‘What’s CHamoru?,’” Chef Shawn Naputi tells me from Prubechu, the celebrated CHamoru restaurant he co-owns with longtime enterprise associate Shawn Camacho.
Technically, CHamoru (additionally stylized Chamorro, a Spanish exonym) refers back to the Indigenous folks, language, and tradition of Guam—the U.S. territory and western Pacific island the place Naputi and Camacho had been born and raised—and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariåna Islands in Micronesia, which incorporates Rota, Tinian, and Saipan.
Conceptually, nonetheless, it’s tough to distill the character of CHamoru delicacies. Meals from Guam is directly unique and acquainted: you’ll swear you’ve tried some dishes earlier than—and also you most likely have, as there are various CHamoru interpretations of dishes which can be common in different cultures, akin to lumpia, empanådas, and potato salad—whereas others are wholly distinctive.
To get a firmer grasp on CHamoru cooking, it’s necessary to contemplate the Mariåna Islands’ geographic location and historical past. The primary islands to be settled by people in Distant Oceania, the Mariånas had been lengthy a coveted outpost on the Pacific commerce route, strategically positioned in relation to the Philippines, Hawaii, Japan, and Oceania. The Indigenous folks of the islands are primarily of Austronesian descent, with the bulk residing on Guam, the most important of the island chain. However starting with the Portuguese explorer Magellan’s arrival within the 1500s, CHamoru natives have needed to incorporate and adapt to a relentless inflow of out of doors influences, together with 300 years of Spanish colonial rule, in addition to occupations by Germany, Japan, and the USA. In the present day, you’ll see an amalgamation of those influences—along with these of Latin American and different Asian and Micronesian cultures, introduced by individuals who have immigrated to the islands—mirrored in CHamoru delicacies.
Naputio and Camacho say that, over time, CHamorus have adopted the dishes they preferred most from these different cultures, including them to their native repertoire and iterating them in their very own distinct means. (One may additionally argue that CHamoru tradition has influenced different cultures in return: the Indigenous CHamorus first settled the Mariåna Islands greater than 3,000 years in the past and developed their very own culinary practices, from which foreigners possible drew inspiration throughout their visits to the islands or occupation of them.) In Guam, the result’s a regularly evolving culinary panorama.
“I feel all of the technical questions concerning ‘The place does this dish come from?’ solely occurs outdoors of Guam,” Naputi says, citing the oft-futile state of affairs of attempting to pin down the provenance of any tradition’s delicacies. Rising up, he and Camacho didn’t even understand that some frequent CHamoru dishes had originated outdoors the island as a result of they had been so inextricably woven into native Guamanian tradition. A dish, subsequently, turns into distinctly CHamoru “when CHamorus resolve to place it on their desk,” Camacho says.
Camacho and Naputi, longtime buddies who initially moved to California for school and culinary college, respectively, opened Prubechu in 2014 after years of cooking their native delicacies for buddies and colleagues. Although California has a big CHamoru inhabitants in comparison with most different states within the mainland U.S., CHamoru meals remains to be extremely underrepresented within the nation’s culinary panorama. Naputi and Camacho try to vary that.
“Meals is a focus of each gathering, and performs a central function in household and our tradition,” Camacho explains. Dishes are sometimes ready in giant batches—generally with the assistance of the entire household and neighbors—and loved communally. Camacho and Naputi try to seize that power at Prubechu, the place they serve shareable plates and often host fiesta-style occasions, typically partnering with native and Guamanian-owned breweries.
Participating the neighborhood via meals is necessary to Camacho and Naputi, each in Guam and at Prubechu. Naputi and Camacho credit score their very own neighborhood for not solely serving to them launch their restaurant, but additionally supporting them throughout a quick hiatus in 2018—once they had been between bodily restaurant areas—and thru 2020’s pandemic-related closures. Their neighborhood additionally linked them with their third enterprise associate—D-Scheme Studio president and architect Marc Dimalanta, one other Guam native—who helped deliver to life Naputi and Camacho’s imaginative and prescient for his or her latest area in 2019.
“We began our unique restaurant with lower than $10,000 and staffed it with household and buddies,” Camacho remembers. “In truth, we wouldn’t be right here with out the neighborhood that constructed us up —the visitors, the encouragement and help from trade execs, the farmers who had been tremendous obsessed with how we had been utilizing their components in very unfamiliar methods.”
Regardless of the multifaceted influences that specific themselves within the delicacies, CHamoru cooking depends closely on two foremost pillars, Naputi says: “Excessive-acid, high-char.” Grilling (additionally colloquially known as barbequing in Guam) and the usage of vinegars and citrus are distinguished in lots of dishes. Spice from recent chile peppers and coconut, which Naputi and Camacho name “the tree of life on Guam,” additionally make frequent appearances, balancing and heightening the opposite flavors.
Naputi and Camacho, dedicated to providing patrons a real CHamoru eating expertise, counsel sure dishes like chicken kelaguen ought to all the time be ready as historically as potential. Nevertheless, making use of some artistic spin when cooking CHamoru meals is usually acceptable. At Prubechu, Naputi attracts upon his expertise working at an Italian restaurant early in his profession, in addition to his entry to recent produce within the San Francisco Bay Space, to create unique takes on distinguished CHamoru dishes. He would possibly swap pasta for rice in a dish, or add components that aren’t accessible in Guam—if and provided that the flavour profiles work, he emphasizes. For instance, Prubechu serves a rendition of tinaktak, a coconut-braised beef that options flavors paying homage to beef stroganoff and is historically served over white rice. To assist diners make the connection, Naputi layers tinaktak over noodles, which he believes makes the dish extra accessible to a wider American viewers with out disrupting the soul of the unique dish.
“Our delicacies may be very basic—we simply add one other ingredient, however we do it with the utmost care,” Camacho says of Prubechu’s means of inviting each Guamanians and non-Guamanians to the desk via creativity. However irrespective of the dish, the objective is similar: “If somebody from Guam flies in and eats our meals, we would like it to style like it could style in Guam.”
Earlier than embarking by yourself exploration into CHamoru cooking at house, Naputi and Camacho suggest stocking your pantry with the next staples, most of which might simply be sourced at your native grocery retailer, or at Asian or Latino markets. Along with the ever-important barbeque grill, some instruments that turn out to be useful in CHamoru cooking are a citrus squeezer, coconut grating software, and tortilla press—the latter of which is used to make CHamoru titiyas (coconut-infused flatbread) and empanådas.
Cooking CHamoru Meals At House:
Earlier than embarking by yourself exploration into CHamoru cooking at house, Naputi and Camacho suggest stocking your pantry with the next staples, most of which might simply be sourced at your native grocery retailer, or at Asian or Latino markets. Along with the ever-important barbeque grill, some instruments that turn out to be useful in CHamoru cooking are a citrus squeezer, coconut grating software, and tortilla press—the latter of which is used to make CHamoru titiyas (coconut-infused flatbread) and empanådas.
Grated coconut is a key ingredient in lots of iconic CHamoru dishes, together with kelaguen, and sweets like coconut sweet. At Prubechu, the group makes use of Tropics-brand frozen grated coconut, which doesn’t embody added sugars or preservatives, when they’re unable to grate recent coconut on the kåmyu, a conventional Guamanian software with a seat and star-shaped blade.
Soy sauce is the spine of many CHamoru marinades and sauces, together with piquant fina’denne’, which Naputi describes because the “mom sauce” that could be a everlasting fixture on CHamorro tables. Prubechu’s fragrant barbeque marinade additionally depends closely on soy sauce as its base, conjuring Asian-inspired taste profiles with its gentle sweetness and addition of ginger. Naputi and Camacho grew up utilizing Kikkoman-brand soy sauce in Guam, so it’s turn into a dependable go-to at Prubechu.
Along with citrus, vinegar additionally helps obtain acidic taste profiles in CHamoru cooking. Heinz distilled white vinegar or apple cider vinegar are versatile liquids to have available. Naputi additionally incorporates white rice vinegar into dishes like escabeche, and whips coconut vinegar into Prubechu’s creamy tuba butter.
Coconut milk options in lots of conventional CHamoru dishes at Prubechu, together with lechen biringuenas (smoky eggplant in a creamy coconut-soy marinade) and appan mendioka (coconut milk-braised cassava). Contemporary coconut milk is all the time the most effective and most conventional choice, nevertheless it’s labor-intensive and never all the time potential to execute at house. The Prubechu group examined a number of completely different manufacturers of canned coconut milk and located Chaokoh to be the following neatest thing.
Comprised of floor annatto seeds, achiote powder derives from the prickly pink Bixa orellana shrub and was possible first dropped at Guam by the Spanish, who had additionally colonized Mexico. In CHamoru cooking, its subtly candy, earthy taste enhances CHamoru empanådas and pink rice (hineksa’ aga’ga’), a mealtime staple that’s usually the primary dish positioned on the head of the fiesta desk. The Prubechu group typically makes use of a pre-made powder from Mamacita’s, a Filipino model, when recent achiote from Guam will not be accessible. “In California, there are loads of cultures that use achiote, so if you happen to get a Latino or Mexican selection, it’s often combined with some sort of liquid, which turns it right into a paste,” Camacho explains.
Although recent lemon is preferable in sure recipes, some dishes require the acidic profile of citrus with out the extra liquid. That’s the place lemon powder is available in. In Guam, Yours Lemon Powder is such a sought-after pantry staple that it’s typically saved behind the counter at shops to keep away from theft, in line with Naputi and Camacho. Whereas Prubechu works immediately with a distributor to acquire their inventory of Yours, the remainder of us can both order it on-line for a premium value (about $10 to $18 for five.2 oz., plus transport) or purchase it in individual in Guam.
Hen’s Eye Chiles
Contemporary pink chiles add warmth to dishes and sauces like fina’denne’ and donne’ dinanche, a spicy paste that’s used as a condiment for grilled meats and white rice. Whereas the Guam pepper varietals donne’ sali and donne’ ti’au aren’t all the time straightforward to search out on the mainland U.S., Camacho and Naputi say pink chicken’s eye chiles—that are extra available at Asian markets and a few grocery chains—mimic their taste and warmth profile nicely, providing high-intensity warmth with out lingering on the palate too lengthy.
Rice has been necessary to CHamorus for hundreds of years, and was even used ceremonially in historical CHamoru tradition. In the present day, steamed rice is a staple that accompanies most CHamoru dishes, both served plain or ready as pink rice with achiote. Naputi and Camacho choose Diamond G Calrose rice as a result of it’s the one model they grew up consuming on Guam (possible as a result of island’s restricted product availability), lending a style of house to the dishes they serve at Prubechu.
Maseca Instant Corn Masa Flour
Mexicans as soon as traveled via the Mariåna Islands on the Mexico-to-Manila commerce route and sure launched corn to the traditional CHamoru food regimen. For lots of of years, CHamorus floor the corn by hand, however in trendy tradition, cooks use processed corn flour to make CHamoru corn titiyas and empanådas. Naputi prefers Maseca-brand masa harina (corn flour) but additionally sources recent masa dough from Latino markets in San Francisco.
