Grand Terrace Resident Wins Best Overall Salsa

Grand Terrace resident Mark Cardona never thought about entering his homemade salsa into a salsa contest, but after urging from those close to him, he decided to enter two salsas into the Oct. 5 Salsa and Chili Contest held in Wrightwood, Calif. Little did he know that his mild green homemade salsa would be chosen as Best Overall in that contest. Wrightwood, located several miles west of the I-15 freeway, just about 38 miles away from Cardona’s home in the Blue Mountain City, has held the annual chili and salsa cook off for several years. “They were surprised to see someone all the way from Grand Terrace,” said Cardona. “Mostly it was local people and some from Victorville.” Winners were chosen in four different salsa categories: hot, mild, fruit and pico de gallo. A total of 20 salsas, including two of Cardoza’s—one in the mild category and one in the hot category—were entered. “There were winners in each of those categories and I was a little disappointed when I didn’t hear my name, but then my name was called for Best Overall and I [couldn’t believe it],” he said. Cardona’s mild green sauce is a favorite of his wife, Robin, she shared. “He makes a bunch of [salsas], but that green one is my favorite. He makes it quite often, and he makes a [large] amount, and it always gets eaten up.” It was encouragement from his friends and family that he decided to enter his salsa into the contest, Cardoza explained. “People kept telling me I should enter it into a contest, so when I heard about this one, I decided to do it,” said Cardoza. But the contest, for Cardoza, was for fun. “I entered nonchalantly,” he said. For about five years Cardoza has been making the salsa from a recipe he received from a family from Sonora, Mexico. “These folks from Sonora treated me to this salsa when I was doing service work in their house,” he said. “I told them, ‘My gosh, I have to have this recipe.’ So they gave me the recipe and I played around with it and made it to my own specifications,” he said. Cardoza, a retired telecommunications technician who recently moved back to his childhood home city of Grand Terrace with his wife, said one of the things he does to his salsa to make it stand out is to use tomatillos rather than tomatoes. He also likes to use avocado, onion, garlic, cilantro and other seasonings, he said.