There was a huge plastic red boonie pepper at the entrance to Mangilao's 2017 Donne Festival. And right next to that was a truly gigantic inflated Coca-Cola bottle. It was an appropriate combination because after taking in classic dinanche sauce made from the Donne Sali pepper, any normal person would want a big slug of Coke...or mango juice...or bottles of ice cold water.
Whether the true fans of the truly pika--hot--jungle peppers have a normal palate is open to question.
Donne Sali, usually in moderate quantity, is a staple ingredient of Chamorro cooking.
During this three day pepper celebration, plenty of pepper products were consumed, pepper and other plants sold and a local tradition was continued.
And judges were charged with handing down a verdict on the various dinanche sauces on hand.
The MC handed down the rules of evaluation:
"The five criteria are: Aroma, how does the dinanche smell? Does it smell appealing? Does it smell good?; Color. Does the dinanche look appealing? Does it look brown? Or does it look red hot, where you can tell they used a pound of peppers?; Consistency. How does it look? Is it watery? Is it chunky?; The taste. Obviously, that's what we're here for. And the after taste, because some people like to put a secret ingredient there."
