May 20 — Island Fare

by Jim Peredo | edited by Terry Sun

Bio: I am of CHamoru descent (from the island of Guåhan, aka Guam) though I was born in Reno, NV, and currently reside in Lakewood, WA. I lived on the island only for a year as a kid, but I have a large extended family, and I try to go back to re-connect whenever I can. You can find me blogging for Diary of a Crossword Fiend, and every year I help with the running of the Virtual Tournament portion of the ACPT. Si yu’os ma’åse ("thank you”) to Alisya and Terry for inviting me to be part of this project and to you for solving our puzzles.

A note from Jim: This puzzle formed as I looked for something to unite the various Pacific Island cultures. What better way to do that than with food? And I found the perfect (though possibly polarizing) foodstuff item in [redacted]. [Redacted]’s birthday is coming up on July 5th, so why not plan a trip to the [Redacted] Museum in Austin, Minnesota? I’d like to thank my daughter Anna for test-solving this puzzle; maybe she can contribute to next year’s APIHMinis (nudge, nudge).