A Taste of Guam (Paperback)

~ Paula Ann Lujan Quinene (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A Taste of Guam is a recipe book designed to share Chamorro culture through food, particularly Chamorro bbq. This book also includes the author’s collection of recipes: Other Island Favorites, Mix of America, Guam Desserts, and a Treasure Chest of Sweets.

About the Author

The author was born and raised on Guam. She now lives in North Carolina and tries to keep up with her wonderful toddlers. When they are asleep, she enjoys quilting, weight training and investing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 111 pages
• Publisher: Infinity Publishing (July 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0741433680
• ISBN-13: 978-0741433688
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 7.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #59,600 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Island Delights..., August 16, 2009

By	BookNerd Extraordinaire "BookNerd" (Arizona USA) - See all my reviews

I was given the amazing opportunity to review Paula A. Lujan Quinene's cookbook, "A Taste of Guam". I am always willing to try something new and being unfamiliar with cuisine from Guam, I had to do it!

[...]

"A Taste of Guam.....sharing Chamorro culture through food. This book includes the author's collection of recipes: Chamorro BBQ, Other Island Favorites, Guam Desserts, Mix of America, and a Treasure Chest of Sweets. A Taste of Guam has the best recipe for guyuria (fried cookies dusted with sugar syrup, roskette (cornstarch cookies) and latiya (pound cake with custard and cinnamon). Paula spent countless hours measuring the ingredients and testing the recipes! This is one island girl sharing ALL HER RECIPE secrets! This Guam cookbook is a must have for those in need of great Chamorro recipes that actually work! You'll also find an islander's list of places to eat on Guam, a list of the village fiestas, and a short time-line of Guam's history."

My thoughts:

The cookbook was very easy to follow and seemed to share Paula Quinene's personality and personal history with each recipe. She broke down each recipe in to sets, in order as needed. Which I found to be a huge help and made organizing very easy. She was great about explaining the cooking process. Also, she even made sure to explain how certain dishes are pronounced. For example, Buchi Buchi pronounced "bu-chee bu-chee). I also love that she included places to stop at in Guam if you were to ever visit, a short history of Guam, major Fiestas of their culture,

However, I felt that since the recipes are unique to other cultures there needed to be an explanation as to what certain ingredients are or even an acceptable substitute. For example, The recipe for "Ahu" called for Ahu meat. I googled it and couldn't find anything other then other recipes for "Ahu" and none of them mentioned Ahu meat, instead there were references for coconut meat. The other suggestion I have is how many servings the recipes make. Not a single recipe mentioned the servings (i.e. maybe it serves 4 or 8?). I understand that it must be difficult to come up with the amount as these are recipes in which are normally eyeballed and the author went through and remade the recipes and measured so that she may be able to write the cookbook. Since I had no idea what the serving sizes were, I had no idea how much to reduce everything by to cook for a smaller group. My pot of red rice was enough to feed an army.

With those few suggestions aside, I don't want anybody to be turned off of the book. It's a GREAT cookbook with unique recipes that will make for a fun night of Chamorro food. I made the "Red Rice" and it was DELICIOUS! I made "Fina'Dinne" which is a traditional sauce served with BBQ, egg rolls, white rice, etc., this is more of a taste preference but I didn't care for it. I might try it again but reduce the amount of vinegar. My neighbor had some and LOVED it. Once again, that is a taste preference. I made the Crab Kelaguen. Yum. I read the recipe, thought it weird but wanted to try it. Holy cow was it fabulous! I just ate it on it's own. So delicious. I lastly made Estufao. Oh my goodness. Delicious. If you like Filipino Adobo, you will LOVE Estufao. Fabulous. I am definitely going to try some of the recipes, especially the Chicken Kelaguan and some of the desserts. I am going to play around with trying to cut down the red rice until I get it to a smaller size without losing all of it's fabulous flavor.

I think Paula Lujan Quinene definitely has a market for this book and I have suggested it to other friends of mine who love to try different cuisines!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great recipes, March 28, 2007

By	Vince Labrecque "(Lujan)" (Maine) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First a little about myself. My mother who is Chammorro left guam with my dad who was a marine. I grew up enjoying many chammorro dishes but after I left home I eat mainly american foods.
The collection on recipes in the cookbook brought me back to my youth and now I enjoy these wonderfull dishes once again.
She has incorporated a great variety of recipes are easy to follow and the taste as I remember them.
Thank you very much Paula

5.0 out of 5 stars Homemade Guam recipes made easy and delicious!, January 18, 2010

By	BE_Mom (Calif.) - See all my reviews

Taste of Guam is a great recipe book of the island favorites! I was born and raised on Guam and the island food was definitely one of the things I enjoyed and miss since I don't live there anymore. This book is well written, organized and easy to follow and I like Paula's personal commentary with each recipe. Also, I liked that she listed the places to eat on Guam, which I totally agree with. I would totally recommend this book for anyone who likes island food, or just food in general, but definitely for anyone who has been on Guam and wants a "Taste of Guam"!