CHORISOS ESPAÑOT

What do many Chamorros living in the mainland ask us to send them? Chorisos Españot.

Strongly-flavored and fatty, chorisos españot can be really addicting.

And, for Chamorros, there is only one kind of chorisos españot. It has to be the "El Rey" brand, in its distinctive olive green can (or plastic bag, nowadays) and gold lettering.

Where does it come from?

Well, we call them chorisos españot which literally means "Spanish sausages."

But notice that the can (or package) does NOT call them chorisos españot. It doesn't even say Chorizos Españoles, which would be the way to say it in Spanish. In fact, there is no ONE thing in Spain known as "chorizos españoles" because there are dozens and dozens of different kinds of Spanish sausages.

The green can or package doesn't call these chorizos by a certain name. But the original manufacturer of the El Rey variety of chorizos called them chorizo Bilbao (or chorizos de Bilbao) after the Spanish city of Bilbao. There may be chorizos made in Bilbao, but it's not exactly what you find inside the El Rey can of chorizo.

The original manufacturer, named Genato, enjoyed much success with his brand of chorizo and chorizo Bilbao became well-loved in many a Filipino kitchen. It was Genato who thought up the brand name, the design of the can and the tweaking of the flavor, which includes generous portions of paprika.

I wonder if our Genato of the Chorizo is the same Vicente Genato of the Genato Commercial Corporation in Manila which produced Royal brand foods. The Royal brand of chorizo bears striking similarities with the El Rey brand. The Royal brand chorizos were encased in lard (manteca) inside the can. Vicente Genato had a store on the Escolta, a premier shopping street in the Binondo district of old Manila.

At some point, Genato's El Rey brand of chorizos were being manufactured in the U.S. Several different American companies have manufactured the El Rey brand.

Chorisos Españot being sold in Hawaii for $5.29 a can in 1960.

But I believe Guam didn't need to wait for chorisos to be made in the US in order to enjoy them. Guam merchants always did business in Manila before the war, and I wouldn't be surprised if they imported El Rey chorisos españot since then. Someone on Guam called them "Spanish sausages," or "chorisos españot," maybe because the cans had Spanish writing on them.

They come in plastic bags now

FRIED RICE WITH CHORISOS ESPAÑOT

annieschamorrokitchen.com

THE BIG QUESTION

So, if chorisos españot is made in the US, why do our stateside friends and relatives ask us on Guam to send it to them there?

I suppose because it is easier and faster for us to find El Rey chorisos españot at Payless down the street than for them to hunt high and low in Orange County. They may be made in the US but they aren't sold down the street everywhere in the US.

This is one of the few quirks of life where people on Guam need to send to the mainland something made in the mainland.