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Apigigi seller belies glass pieces
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Posted on Apr 18 2019
The Commonwealth Council for Arts and Culture has declined to comment on a social media post claiming that a customer found two glass pieces on an apigigi sold by one of the vendors at the 38th Annual Flame Tree Arts Festival last weekend.
Apigigi is a Chamorro dessert made from grated coconut and tapioca or cassava.
The poster on Facebook claims that she found the glass pieces in an apigigi that was bought from Fong’s Bakery at the festival.
CCAC executive director Parker Yobei declined to comment on the post but did speak in an interview, saying he had already reached out to Fong’s Bakery, who disputed the claim, saying all the apigigi they sell are hand-made.
“I am not going to comment…because the [Bureau of Environmental Health] took over as well as the Attorney General’s Office…just to get to the bottom of this,” he said.
Fong’s Bakery general manager Maggie Mendoza told Saipan Tribune that she believes the post is an attack on the bakery “to destroy the company’s reputation.”
If there really was a piece of glass in the apigigi mix, Mendoza said would have known at once since the products are all hand-made and she is the only one who makes them.
According to Mendoza, people from BEH reportedly showed up at her bakery last Saturday, April 13, to investigate the bakery. She demonstrated how she makes the apigigi the bakery sells.
“Only I make the apigigi since I use a secret recipe for it,” she said, adding that she does not let her employees make the apigigi. “If they found something suspicious they should’ve shut us down right there and then,” she said, yet the bakery was not shut down.
Mendoza further noted that she was told that the bakery could sue the Facebook poster, a certain Richiko Langu, who posted in a buy-and-sell group on Facebook that she “found two small pieces of glass” in the apigigi she bought at the Flame Tree Arts Festival last weekend.
“I only felt it once I took a bite. Right after I broke it in half, there was a bigger piece sticking to it. This is so not right!” she posted after naming both the bakery and the festival. “Just a warning, please be careful out there.”
