Soy Sauce Salsa #KikkomanSabor

I can only speak for my state but California is big on salsa.  We love our salsas.  You see them everywhere.  Salsa should be the official condiment of the state.  There are hundreds of variations of salsa - spicy, sweet, traditional and new.  The most common are pico de gallo (my favorite!), salsa verde and salsa rojo.  But have you ever heard of salsa made with Kikkoman Soy Sauce?  Of course there was a reason why I'm giving a little history lesson on salsa!

The first time my Mexican husband Chris tried fina'dene he called it "Islander Salsa".  My Islander side of the family makes a version of salsa with Kikkoman Soy Sauce.  My Papa calls it "the sauce" or "da sauce".  The smell of finadene will make your mouth water and eventually pucker when you taste it - it has the right touch of POW!  Just like everyone has their own version of salsa - finadene is made different too.  Most of the recipes call for calamansi juice (or lemon juice) with white onions and sometimes cherry tomatoes.  My version is super simple, fresh and HOT.  Enjoy!  


Fina'dene Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Kikkoman Soy Sauce
• 1 cup White Vinegar
• 2 Roma Tomatoes 
• 4 Green Onions 
• 4-6 Asian Chili Peppers 

Fina'dene Directions

• Mix Kikkoman Soy Sauce and white vinegar, set aside
• Chop or crush chili peppers (Crushing the chili peppers will make it really hot)
• Add chili peppers to soy sauce and vinegar mix, let it sit for 30 minutes 
• Chop tomatoes and green onions - Add to mix just before serving 

It is perfect on tacos, bbq meat, chicken, fish, rice, etc.  You can even use it as a base for ceviche.  

The "Asian chili pepper" that is supposed to be used in finadene is called donne' or Guam boonie pepper.  It has an unofficial Scoville rating of 140,000 placing it in one of the top five hottest pepper categories (more than 20x hotter than a jalapeno pepper).  A few years ago, our neighbor had a donne' tree - I would sneak over to pick a few.  The tree eventually died so I started looking everywhere from ethnic markets to farmers markets.  I now get a small bag of Asian chili peppers (aka Japones or Thai chili peppers - they are tiny and red) from 99 Ranch Market.  

Disclosure:  This is a compensated post in collaboration with Kikkoman and Latina Bloggers Connect.  All opinions are my own.

Celebrating Mixed Heritage Week!

To know me is to know my family bloodline.  It  has been mixed for almost 100 years and I am proud of each drop.  My amazing Papa told me stories about our heritage since I was old enough to remember.  Papa's ancestors were Spanish and Chamorro.  Chamorro being the indigenous people of a small island in the Pacific Ocean called Guam.

He married Nana who is Filipino.  Nana not only spoke English, Tagalog and Spanish but also learned Chamorro.  Papa learned Japanese during World War II.  Their love of culture and education is so very inspiring and motivating because the sad truth is that they did not get to finish elementary school.  With only a 2nd grade education, Papa was a career longshoreman in the Port of Guam and Nana was a housewife, they raised 6 children who were in private school and owned their own home on a huge chunk of land.    

Knowing my mixed heritage history firsthand from my grandparents played a huge part in my identity.  It is important to pass down our family's story to my children so they can tell their kids one day.  My children are just as proud as I am to know where they come from and who they are - who their family is.  This is why we are so proud to Celebrate Mixed Heritage Week with Growing Up Blackxican!