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Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia · Volume 08, The Reducción, the Fiesta and the Fishing Stone

Fina'denne'

CHamoru, Guam

Fina'denne', the CHamoru soy, vinegar and hot pepper table sauce: a small dark dipping bowl of thin dark soy brown sauce, pale diced onion suspended in it, two or three small bright red whole chillies floating on the surface.

Illustration

The everyday condiment, and the clearest single artefact of the whole four-layer colonial stack: its ingredient list changed with each administration in turn.

The earliest, pre-Spanish version was simply salt and red pepper. Filipinos who stayed under Spanish administration introduced tuba, giving a Spanish-period fina'denne' of tuba, salt, lemon, water and fresh pepper. Soy sauce arrived with Japan, producing the now-familiar "black" version. The name itself translates from Fino' CHamoru as "made with chili pepper." "Black" fina'denne' (soy and vinegar based) is the meat and chicken version and sits at the table's centre; "white" fina'denne' (lemon or vinegar based, no soy) accompanies fish and tinala' katne.

As tradition built it

Recipe credited to Tanya M. Champaco Mendiola.

Ingredients

  • 160 ml soy sauce
  • 120 ml vinegar
  • ¼ white onion, diced, or green or red onion
  • 4 donne' peppers, or dinache

Method

  1. Mix the ingredients in a glass bowl and serve.
  2. Crush the peppers, cut them, or leave them whole. Crushing makes the sauce hotter.
  3. Spoon it over food, or set it out in a small dish for dipping meat, poultry or fish.

Notes

Tanya M. Champaco Mendiola's page on Guampedia also names, without quantities, binakle fina'denne' of tuba vinegar, salt, onion and pepper; chigu'an fina'denne' of salt and fish brine; and a lemon version with salt, onion, red pepper and cherry tomato.

What a modern chef changes

The white and black versions built as a genuine pair, and the peppers' heat controlled rather than left to chance.

Method

  1. Build both the black (soy, vinegar) and white (lemon, vinegar) versions to a fixed, repeatable ratio, tasting and adjusting salt and acid by percentage rather than volume alone, since this is a table sauce a diner will use liberally and inconsistency shows immediately.
  2. Deseed a portion of the peppers before adding them, holding a separate small dish of the whole, seeded peppers alongside, so a diner can calibrate their own heat rather than the sauce forcing one level on the whole table.
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