How Spam Conquered Hawaii, and How I Conquered Spam

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What do you see when you think of Hawaiian
food? If you’re like me, you conjure up images of fresh fruits (bananas and
pineapples being the most prolific in the image, but generally anything that
will fit on top of the Tropicana lady’s head will do), seafood (Hawaii is, after all,
in the middle of the Pacific ocean), and exotic luau dishes like steamed taro
leaves and roast pig.

In reality, Hawaii’s cuisine
is both much more and much less than what the stereotypical image beholds. The
bananas and pineapples are abound, in addition to avocados (which grow in most
backyards), passion fruit, guavas, and a host of other exotic fruits that are
beyond many an imagination. Becoming acquainted with the amazing variety of
fruit grown in Hawaii takes a courageous and adventurous spirit, but one that will be
rewarded with unparalleled food experiences.

Move away from the agricultural parts of Hawaii though, and
you see much less of the exotic fruits and much more….well….Spam.

Hawaii is the Spam capital of the USA, with
almost 11,000 cans being consumed per day. Per day. Hawaii is just not
that big either. That’s a lot of Spam. Walk into the grocery store, and you’ll
see spam on rice (served sushi-style, and called musubi), spam hot plates, and
of course, cans upon cans of the stuff. McDonalds offers Spam-based breakfasts,
and most local restaurants have some sort of Spam delicacy on the menu.

And the locals lap this stuff up like it’s
going out of style. Shhh….don’t tell them it already went out of style -
decades ago.

The history of how Spam conquered Hawaii is actually
up in the air. Some say that it dates back to the Second World War, where
provisions like Spam were necessary for troops and easy to transport,
henceforth becoming rampant in Hawaii with lots of left-over stock. Others suggest it dates back to the
plantation days, as an easy alternative to meat which wasn’t always available.
And others yet suggest that Spam just plain goes well with rice – another
Hawaiian specialty.

So in the spirit of adopting various
cuisines around the world wholeheartedly, I decided to make a valiant attempt
with Spam – Hawaiian style.

Hawaiians only eat spam cooked (god forbid
they should eat such gruel right out of the can). And I’ll admit, walking by
the array of musubi in the grocery store kept warm under the heat lamps along
with rotisserie chicken, my eyes have strayed off course more than once. And as
a sushi-lover, anything with sushi rice and seaweed can’t be that bad, can it?

So purely as an experiment for the purposes
of this article, I purchased a piece of musubi for $1.75. For my two dollars, I
received a large bed of sushi rice, a 1/4 inch slice of fried Spam, and some
sort of teriyaki sauce, all held together with nori (seaweed).

As I left the store, warm musubi in my
hand, I was actually excited. No really. I had heard so much bad stuff about
Spam, but somehow I figured that if it was cooked it would end up something
like ham.

Read how this story ends at it’s original location here!