Static Zombie

there are only two good uses for spam:

1. carving

2. song...spam, spam, spam, spam. lovely spaaaam! wonderful spaaaam!

Oh yeah. Spam is HUGE there.

And let me offer the other uniquiely Hawaiian dish that will totally ruin all preconceptions you might have had that the place is a gourmet paradise: Locomoco. Pile of rice, a hamburger patty or two, covered in brown gravy, and topped with a fried egg.

Hey, the locals gotta eat too.

(As someone sick in the head like that, one night, upon realizing that I had a couple frozen hamburger patties in the freezer with no corresponding buns, and some extra eggs, I tried making it. I hate eggs in any permutation that does not involve the vigorous mixing of the yolk and white prior to cooking, so I cheated a little and scrambled the egg instead.

It was actually damned good in an artery-hardening sort of way. :))

"I gather that Hawaii's fondness for Spam is well-known, but until now it wasn't to me."

There speaks a man who has never seen 50 First Dates... which is a shame, because it's a shockingly good movie, even when not judged against the rest of the Adam Sandler oeuvre.

My step-father used to call Spam "donkey dick" but then, he was just that sort of guy. Then again, he called himself Dick too... Funny, that.

The best part of Spam is the slimy jelly that it comes packed in.

No, the best part is that there are actual human beings that not only view the slimy jelly fake (aka "processed") meat comes packed in as food, they actually view it as a desirable food and not the last resort before starving to death.

Spam makes an interesting, if salty, burger-like sandwich. I kinda doubt it's a nuanced enough flavor by itself to make sushi-like items, but who am I to judge?

I have never understood the American need to ridicule spam, or to self-deprecate when you actually eat it. You dont have to like it, and it sure is too salty and fatty and mysterious, but there are lots of other extremely unhealthy foods that Americans dont feel a need to ridicule. Is this some kind of deep-seated insecurity at work? :) After all, Americans did invent the stuff.

Canned luncheon meat (not necessarily the "Spam" brand) is also quite popular in Hong Kong, where I grew up. My family in Hong Kong probably ate 2-3 cans per person per year. Judging from the large number of different brands of canned luncheon meats you can find in a Chinese grocery store, I'd guess it's pretty big in mainland China too. In fact, I remember being a little surprised when I first came to USA and found that people here ridicule spam -- I have always considered it a form of American export, like jeans and McDonalds and Disney.

Nowadays my family in US maybe eats 1 can per person per year -- and we only eat a particular brand imported from China because we like its flavor much better than Spam brand. (This may remind some of a previous long discussion on static zombie about imported instant noodles... :D )

Burger patties with brown gravy and rice is also a very common Japanese meal. (I dont know whether the Japanese learned it from the Hawaiians or vice versa, or perhaps this question is moot since so many Hawaiians are also Japanese.) And frankly, it's just a change of starch from a typical American burger with barbeque sauce. Obviously it's not a "traditional" Japanese meal, but as you can easily imagine, the Japanese (just like the Chinese etc.) have adapted western cuisine and made a kind of "Japanized western cuisine". This is not high-end, fancypants "fusion" cuisine I'm talking about, but more analogous (culturally and historically) to how Americans created "American Chinese" cuisine with chop-suey etc. Next time you go to a Japantown kind of area in a big city like San Francisco (maybe Seattle, but I've never been there), if you feel adventurous try to find one of these restaurants which serve Japanized western food. The standard items would be burger patties in brown (or ketchup) gravy with rice with optional fried egg, Japanese style curry rice plate, etc. Such restaurants usually also serve other better-known rice dishes like katsudon. I cant guarantee you will like it, but I can almost guarantee you will find it alien. :)

My favorite "Japanized western" food is actually spicy cod roe on top of overcooked spaghetti -- I kid you not. http://www.sbfoods.co.jp/biz/productssite/text/productspageif.htm
Lest you think this is a gross misunderstanding on how pasta "should" be eaten, I've heard that Italians in some southern regions also shave fish roe on pastas as a garnish, and I've personally eaten a very similar thing (toothpaste tube of fish roe) sold at Ikea food store as a pasta garnish. So apparently the Italians and the Scandinavians do this too. BTW, that webpage belongs to S&B foods, a very popular brand of premade Japanese sauces and seasonings etc., some traditional (e.g. wasabi tubes) and some Japanized-western (curry, etc.)

Finally, I have never eaten spam sushi, and I would imagine it's certainly not "nuanced" enough to be compared to other sushi. :) However, my favorite way to eat spam is in spam fried rice, so I have indeed eaten spam and rice many times.

What's wrong with Spam? It's mostly shoulder meat with a bit of ham.

Bear with me as I was reading a book day before yesterday that discussed how it's made...

The meat is ground into two sizes and it's assembled like concrete. One size is used as the grit and the other as the mortar to bind the grit together.

Interesting to note, though, that "Spiced Ham", a.k.a. Spam, really has very little spice in it.

I've never had it (re)cooked except in musubi. It's good. Spam sandwiches on white bread are better, though.

Actually, there's a fairly simple explanation for Spam's popularity in Hawaii and other island regions. There isn't a lot of real estate there to raise livestock, and imported canned meat is a heck of a lot cheaper than imported meat that had to be brought in in a freezer ship.

I must admit, though, featuring on the menu of a Hawaiian restaurant on the mainland is a bit curious. That might be taking authenticity a little too far if you're trying to cater to mainlanders.

Rich Rowan: "My step-father used to call Spam "donkey dick" but then, he was just that sort of guy."

Warning: While this is confirmed in Urban Dictionary (it in fact refers to pretty much any luncheon meat of questionable origin that comes in a long tubular shape, such as bologna or Taylor Pork Roll), I strongly advise against Googling the phrase "donkey dick" unless you have a rather strong stomach. :)

I think it has something to do with the fact that Spam doesn't taste very good (IMHO). The only reason I ever ate it was to gross out my siblings.

I did the same thing with mushrooms, but eventually grew to actually like them.

one of the best email subjects i've received was, "watch teenage girls suck donkey dick". i don't think they were referring to spam.

if you think that's funny, have you seen spamusment?

Apparently Vietnamese people enjoy it as well. I was a bit surprised when we ordered the "meatball appetizer" at our favorite Vietnamese place and out came slices of fried spam. Blechh.

More insight into the Spam phenomemon abroad

http://tinyurl.com/dvsnv