B#B# ANDAUT

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CHAYOTE 

Around 1904, James H. Underwood, an American resident of Guam, married to a Chamorro woman and eventually US Postmaster of Guam, came across an article in the Sunset Magazine about a vegetable that attracted his attention.

It was called chayote, a native of Mexico that spread elsewhere in time. In the Sunset article, a lady in Los Angeles was growing them in her backyard, and a photo of the vegetable was included.

Underwood wrote to the lady, asking if she'd mail him chayote seeds in exchange for seeds from Guam plants. She said yes. This episode was written up in the Guam Recorder in 1936.

HOW TO EAT?

There are numerous ways to eat it. Treat it like squash, or zucchini or cucumber. Sauté it, pan fry it, use it in soup. Whatever way suits you. Some eat in raw as long as it's pickled. It doesn't need even need to be peeled.

THE GUAM CHAMORRO NAME FOR IT

This is where it gets interesting.

Once the seeds got to Underwood, I assume he grew them or gave them to someone to grow and from there it spread among the people.

JAMES H. UNDERWOOD

Lacking a Chamorro name for it, the people soon invented one. We have no idea who started it. But it became the accepted local name for chayote.

Since it includes a sensitive word, I will not spell it out completely. The lady in the video says it, so you'll know it from her.

Many Chamorros in those days found it easier to pronounce Underwood as Andaut. That is, AN - DA - UT (OOT).