I'll have to dig up the photo I took, but when I visited my friends John and Blanche on the Big Island, even the True Value hardware store devoted an entire aisle to Spam.
And now we come to SPAM musubi. Musubi consists of any of a number of proteins--a shrimp, a bit of fish, a scrambled egg--sitting on a shaped ball of sushi rice and all of it wrapped in papery black seaweed (nori).
In Hawaii during and after the war, it became common to use a slice of SPAM on top of that sushi rice. An added feature was that the empty SPAM can could be packed with rice, which would retain the shape of the can. Which means the slice of "meat" fit exactly on top of the rice. I have spent many a happy moment stuffing SPAM musubi into my mouth.
And here's another trick, Mom: two slices of SPAM fit neatly on top of a square toaster waffle. You can add another waffle to make a sandwich. No butter or syrup needed.
I swear to God, I never laid eyes on this abomination until I was an adult. My mother was English--not of English extraction, but actual English; my American father met her in London during the Korean war and no, I don't know what exactly to make of that but those are the facts. My mother was not a great cook, but she mastered the basics and Spam was not one of them, though I'm betting she ate something not unlike it during WWII. I'm guessing that our childhood staple she dubbed "pussycat food" probably owed something to that (cheap ground whatever extended with breadcrumbs) + the fact that my sibs and I all loved cats. Though we weren't allowed to have one for years because my father didn't like them; he liked to say that 'livestock belonged in the barn' even though he was raised in a far upper westside apartment and housecats are hardly 'livestock.' In any event, Pussycat Food was ground beef and canned tomato sauce plus assorted vegetables, cooked to maximum softness and served over white rice. Not exactly haute cuisine, but I'm betting that if you seasoned it a little more aggressively it would still taste pretty good.
An old DC friend of mine, moved to Hawaii- one of the smaller islands- and when I quizzed him about a Spam comment he made, he assured me that the Hawaiian fascination with Spam was true, and even he enjoyed it on occasion. I asked him if he attributed that (the Spam taste-testing) to any of the obvious head injuries he received in earlier times. He said that may have been a factor, but, the Spam dishes did taste good, usually…
No Monty Python references? 🤔
Inconceivable!
Dear God, John...I'm only ONE MAN!...while there were SIX of them. PLUS Carol Cleveland!
They love the stuff in Hawaii. It’s everywhere. Spam and eggs, Spam misubi, Spamburgers - you name it.
I'll have to dig up the photo I took, but when I visited my friends John and Blanche on the Big Island, even the True Value hardware store devoted an entire aisle to Spam.
"meat of many uses" is terrifyingly sinister. Isn't that a subtitle for one of the Saw movies?
Not a whole movie, I think it was just one of Jigsaw’s many brief, but helpful YouTube tutorials.
As the commercial says "Don't knock until you've fried it."
Yes! I was waiting for the state of Hawaii to weigh in!
And now we come to SPAM musubi. Musubi consists of any of a number of proteins--a shrimp, a bit of fish, a scrambled egg--sitting on a shaped ball of sushi rice and all of it wrapped in papery black seaweed (nori).
In Hawaii during and after the war, it became common to use a slice of SPAM on top of that sushi rice. An added feature was that the empty SPAM can could be packed with rice, which would retain the shape of the can. Which means the slice of "meat" fit exactly on top of the rice. I have spent many a happy moment stuffing SPAM musubi into my mouth.
And here's another trick, Mom: two slices of SPAM fit neatly on top of a square toaster waffle. You can add another waffle to make a sandwich. No butter or syrup needed.
I'm learning so much! Some of it is making me kind of queasy, but still...my brain is a'swell with learning!
Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, and spam.
Cue the Monty Python Spam song, with a nod to the fact that they were all Brits and grew up in the shadow of post-WWII making do ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBcY3W5WgNU&ab_channel=MontyPython
I especially love the way they're lowered into this scene! :)
https://youtu.be/anwy2MPT5RE?si=m683OHhuhoA2sOpw
Brilliantly absurd!
I love spam
Oh YOU’RE the guy!
I swear to God, I never laid eyes on this abomination until I was an adult. My mother was English--not of English extraction, but actual English; my American father met her in London during the Korean war and no, I don't know what exactly to make of that but those are the facts. My mother was not a great cook, but she mastered the basics and Spam was not one of them, though I'm betting she ate something not unlike it during WWII. I'm guessing that our childhood staple she dubbed "pussycat food" probably owed something to that (cheap ground whatever extended with breadcrumbs) + the fact that my sibs and I all loved cats. Though we weren't allowed to have one for years because my father didn't like them; he liked to say that 'livestock belonged in the barn' even though he was raised in a far upper westside apartment and housecats are hardly 'livestock.' In any event, Pussycat Food was ground beef and canned tomato sauce plus assorted vegetables, cooked to maximum softness and served over white rice. Not exactly haute cuisine, but I'm betting that if you seasoned it a little more aggressively it would still taste pretty good.
An old DC friend of mine, moved to Hawaii- one of the smaller islands- and when I quizzed him about a Spam comment he made, he assured me that the Hawaiian fascination with Spam was true, and even he enjoyed it on occasion. I asked him if he attributed that (the Spam taste-testing) to any of the obvious head injuries he received in earlier times. He said that may have been a factor, but, the Spam dishes did taste good, usually…