Audrey, I can’t give you a handy statistic, but yesterday I was in the grocery store in Na’alehu and a young couple was buying Vienna Sausages by the CASE …
Ack, pfui!
That’s the other issue with SPAM in Hawaii. Native Hawaiians in the 1800s died of diseases brought in by the Europeans … but in the 1900s (and 2000s) they’re dying of SPAM. Obesity and high blood pressure, along with diabetes, are the major killers of those with Hawaiian genes, whose pre-contact diet was almost ridiculously healthy.
The extreme popularity of SPAM, introduced during WWII when fresh meat was scarce and very expensive, contributes directly and indirectly to those deaths … as does the sugar industry (there was no sugar cane in Hawaii, pre-contact).
That said, I make MY musubi with a thin layer of fried egg, and the SPAM sandwiched between two blocks of rice, not just inelegantly flopped on top! G
Damn. My mom’s was born and raised in Hawai’i and you all are torturing me by listing comfort foods this close to lunchtime. Tuna, mayonaise and rice? Yes! But rice, eggs and spam with a gallon of shoyu is really the thing.
Never cared for vienna sausages, though. Must be the mainland influence…
Local diet is definitely protein- and starch-heavy. My favorite example is the typical $3.50 bento box lunch: a big ol’ tangle of teriyaki beef, piece o’ fried chicken, a hot dog, and a slice o’ SPAM (or TREET, the anti-SPAM, if the vendor is in league with Satan), all laid out on like three cups of white rice, PLUS…
a slice of pickled daikon the size of a postage stamp to push it all down your colon.
Tuna, rice, and mayo?! What the heck is that?! I had a friend who used to mix rice, tuna, and shoyu, and that was really good. But mayo?! Eew!
As for Vienna sausages, I wouldn’t buy them by the case, but I could certainly make use of the stuff. There’d be lots of Vienna sausage omelettes and Vienna sausage and egg sandwiches. Mmm, Vienna sausage and egg sandwiches… Though I can’t say I love Vienna sausage, or Spam, even. I like Spam in fried rice, and I like Spam musubis, but I don’t think I’ve ever really had a craving for the stuff. (Too many meals of Spam and Cabbage is to blame, I suspect! :D) It might be my roomie’s influence, but these days I like Portuguese sausage more.
On a side note, I miss going into 7-Eleven and other convenience stores and seeing manapua, potstickers, and spam and shoyu hotdog musubis in the heated displays.
Musubi story:
My kids are hapa and I have been in the army for a long time so they didn’t get to grow up in Hawaii except for the last six years. But we kept coming back because all my family is here. We passed through once when my son was about 5 and he and his mom were in the 7-eleven. My son looks local and was standing next to another local boy in front of the heated displays. My kid points to the spam musubi and asks his mom “What’s that ?”. The other kid’s jaw dropped and he looked at my kid as if he was proof that the aliens had landed.
“Eew!”? “EEW!”?! You realize, of course, that you refer to the lubricant of that universal plate lunch filler, mac salad? The temperer of the burn in spicy ahi poke? The perfect and ONLY complement to chilled canned beets and asparagus? THE TRUFFLE OIL FOR THE COMMON MAN?
[draws Bat-Leth] So… You question the worthiness of our condiments. Prepare to die.
Psst… Transplanted Hawaii Dopers:
Zippy’s now sells care packs online. Connect one end of the IV to a bag of chili, insert the needle directly into your veins, and MMMMMM…
Shut uuuup! Bloody Vikings.
Yeah. I hate all that stuff. Mac salad and poke. Ick. Canned beets are unholy, as are the canned versions of asparagus. Fresh all the way, baby, and with BUTTAH.
I’m from Waipahu. Bring it on!
I don’t care if you eat Spam, or mayo and rice, or dolphins for that matter.
But don’t disparage the Mayo. It’s one half of one of my primary comfort foods.
Spaghetti noodles and mayonaise is teh goodness.
Just when I’m eating a spam musubi from 7-11. aaahhh convenience- it’s nice to know I can buy a spam musubi at any hour of the day, even at 3 am. The best spam IMO is the spam that comes from the Zip Pac.