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Maui Fil-Am Heritage Festival

Maui Mall celebrates all things Filipino on Saturday

Event planner Jake Belmonte (from left) and visionary founders Sen. Gilbert Keith-Agaran and Alfredo Evangelista are all smiles at Maui Mall at a previous Maui Fil-Am Festival. The Maui News / CARLA TRACY photo

From the Speedy Balut Eating Contest to the Master P-Noy Chef Cook Off, the annual Maui Fil-Am Heritage Festival will be chock full of Filipino food, fun, fashion and culture from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the center concourse of the Maui Mall in Kahului.

Do come hungry. The Fil-Am fest will be a one-stop shop for all things Filipino — for eating on the spot and for balon (to take home) to enjoy later.

Bring eco-friendly shopping bags and fill them with barbecue pork, pancit palabok, beef steak, menudo, pork morcon, pork adobo, igado, pancit, pinakbet, pork blood, Filipino pastries, bubble tea, pork and peas, chicharon, fried rice omelet, empanadas, halo halo, dinardaraan, fried chicken, cascaron, bibingka, banana lumpia, vegetable lumpia, lechon, kare kare, puto, sweet rice and other ethnic favorites.

Maui Filipino Chamber of Commerce Foundation believes it’s important to feature Maui’s Filipino restaurants selling their most popular dishes and the festival will help to expand their markets.

Participating restaurants and vendors may include Max’s of Manila, Tin Roof, CAA Marketplace, Randy’s Catering, Vidad’s and RM Minimart.

See fashion designer Gil Viacrusis’ Habi at Baro Collection. Maui Filipino Chamber of Commerice photo

Tante’s Island Cuisine will offer $500 in cash or prizes to the winner of the Any Kine Adobo Contest. Entrants may add “any kine” ingredients from goat meat to squid to bamboo shoots.

The Speedy Balut Eating Contest is always a sight to behold. Participants must be experienced balut eaters. The contest begins at 1:30 p.m. with an elimination round: Top four fastest balut eaters advance to the final round. For the final round, the first to eat two baluts wins the $500.

But the highlight of the day seems to be the Master P-Noy Chef Cook Off, featuring defending champion Ritchard Cariago of Ka’ana Kitchen of Andaz Maui, who will battle against challengers, Aris Aurelio of Ko Restaurant at the Fairmont Kea Lani and Gemsley Balagso of the Plantation House in Kapalua.

In addition, you may enjoy back-to-back cultural entertainment, the We Got History booth, photo booth, festival hoops game, fashionista contests and the ever-popular Parol Making Contest, Pinoy Artist Contest,  and the Polvoron Challenge Eat & Tweet along with the parade of Miss Filipinas all in colorful dresses.

“We want to test the chefs’ creativity and challenge them to think beyond the normal Filipino food,” says Gilbert Keith-Agaran, cook-off co-chairman with Jake Belmonte of Maui Culinary Academy.

For more details, call 283-6358 or visit www.mauifilipinochamber.com.

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