Hawaii's people love Spam. We eat an average of 6 cans per person every year. The salty pink luncheon meat isn't just for lunch. We eat it for breakfast, for dinner and anykine snacktime! We buy it in the can, or fried with eggs at McDonald's, or pressed on rice at 7-11. We eat it at home, in (otherwise respectable) restaurants and at the beach. But what is stuff, and how did it become the greasy heart of local cuisine?



Specially Processed Army Meat

Hawaii was the staging ground for the Pacific front in World War II. Meat was rationed at the same time the US military presence increased. Spam was a regular part of military rations. In the can it never expires, and it doesn't require refrigeration. These qualities which were essential to the military also made Spam ideal for the tropical Hawaii climate in a time when refrigeration was not widespread or reliable. Soldiers were happy to trade thier Spam ration for delicious local food, and Hawaii people found out how good Spam is with rice. And in saimin. And fried crispy. And in any other way you can think of slicing it -and some others that are frankly unimaginable to the uninitiated.

Super Pink Alien Meat
Spam remained popular on the Mainland through the 1950's as a jet-age modern marvel. Housewives studded the quivering pink block with cloves and ringed it with cherry-stuffed pinapple rings. It was floated in cream sauce and entombed in that other miracle of food science-fiction, Jello. This explains why Spam became so unpopular in most of the country, except as the butt of cruel jokes. Today, retro-chic has revitalized Spam's popularity. The Internet has spread spam-love and spam-lore. Thousands of Spam devotees on the World Wide Web discuss our beloved ham in a can. Always, they point out, Hawaii is Spam paradise.

Skunk, Possum And Mouse
What is in the familiar blue rectangular can? What does the acronym SPAM stand for? Rumors abound. Most are silly. Some are ominous (Some People Are Missing!) Hormel swears there's nothing in the basic version but pork, ham, salt, water, sugar and sodium nitrite. SPAM stands for nothing but SPiced hAM. Dull, you say? Anti-climactic? No wayz! Let us introduce you to Spam's exciting new varieties!

 

you!

 

Austin, MN

Where spam came from.

I personally dont appreciate SPAM.

 

The only Spam I get is in my email box.

 

I wonder if it still tastes the same as when I was a kid?

 

Now you have me wondering too.

 

What kind of cruel childhoods were you people subjected to??

 

Being raised in Hawaii, I never even knew that SPAM was reviled on the mainland until the internet became prevalent. As long as no one reminds me what's in it, I'll still eat it. ing delicious on rice wrapped with nori (dried seaweed)!

 

spam, eggs, rice and kimchi is what i lived on in college. cheap and good!

 

i don't even know what spam tastes like, and i don't want to.