Guamanian feast

During my conversation with Darrel and Mona after trivia on Monday night we discussed funerals and they described Native American funeral traditions. They mentioned the meals and cooking as part of their experiences. This reminded me of the feast my Uncle Curt, Aunt Cathy, and I attended the day after I returned from my Alaskan cruise.

When Curt was a longshoreman he worked with a fellow originally from Guam. For Curt's retirement party this fellow's relative (Al?) barbecued and cooked the food at Curt's party and this group and Curt have been friends and poker player friends ever since.

One of their friends was having a birthday celebration and feast and they - mainly the women - were also celebrating one of the Catholic saints.

Curt had Mapquest directions to the house as he hadn't been there before. The directions got us all confused as they had us turn right onto a dead end street then do a u-turn back to the road and make another right turn. Instead of going on this side dead end road, all we had to do was go straight a few more blocks. But we found the house.

When we arrived all the women were sitting on folding chairs in the garage engaged in a ceremony for the saint. The men were in the back yard cooking the meat. We joined them. Once the women finished their ceremony they came and joined us and the feast began.

First we had a fantastic dessert. It was a coconut and tapioca pudding mixture wrapped in aluminum foil and baked. Man it was delicious! I had two and I wasn't alone in doing so.

The Guamanians take great pride in the quantity and quality of their food. There was lots of it. And here I just came off a seven day Alaskan cruise with all you can eat food. I was stuffed even before the feast began. Still the food was all delicious and I ate lots. They had pork ribs, several varieties each of chicken, beef, fish. Plus more stuff. I think they had six to eight pies. Rich pies. None of the pies were fruit pies. They were custard, coconut, chocolate, etc.

The Guamanians were great hosts and warm and inviting people. They kept pushing more food on us. Curt mentioned that my mother had passed away recently and the main host (Al?) asked if there was anything he could do to help me. And he was serious about it. I didn't have the feeling that his offer was polite conversation. I'm sure he would have tried to help any way I asked. This was from a guy I knew about an hour. I didn't need any help and I politely and carefully declined any offers of help.

As I said food was an important part of their life. The kids and early teenagers were of normal weight, but all the adults were very big. Al must weigh over 300 lbs and suffers from diabetes and other health problems from being overweight. He joked that he just takes another pill for controlling blood sugar when he overeats sugary food. He said he saw a nutritionist for his diabetes. The nutritionist tried to get him to eat fruit and bagels and other healthier foods. Al said that was boring tasteless food. The nutritionist asked him what his normal breakfast was and he said a dozen eggs and a slab of bacon.

"Oh my! Let me get back to you on a recommended diet."

When Al next talked to her the nutritionist tried to get him to only eat six eggs and a smaller slice of bacon. I don't think Al took her up on it.

It was a great time and I was able to squeeze in another slice of coconut ( I love coconut!) pie before we left which I think pleased our hosts. They plan another big feast in January for another birthday and wanted me to come. The food would be great, but I have no plans to be in Washington state in January.