Today I did something I had been planning for awhile: I made a big batch of my home recipe of Spam musubis (a cake of rice topped with Spam and wrapped with seaweed), and brought them in to our copying crew as an acknowledgment of their good work. Three out of the four people who work in that department are Pacific islanders and know all about this treat, so I knew they’d enjoy them.
What I didn’t count on were other people in the firm who helped themselves to a musubi and then immediately e-mailed me asking “My God! What were those yummy things?” Imagine their surprise when they found out they were made with humble Spam!
So, I’m guilty of introducing completely unsuspecting folks to yet another addictive goodie. In the past, I’ve been responsible of hooking my co-workers on fried wasabi peas, Hawaiian Sun punches, Chinese beef jerky and tropical fruit smoothies with tapioca pearls.
Hey! As I type, I’m getting requests for the musubi recipe. Hehehe, the foodie corrupts the unadventurous eaters yet again!
Mmm. Spam musubi.
I threw a Hawai’i style party once when living in California, but the only people who made it were Napa Valley people and people from Ohio and they were all afraid to eat anything. It offended me slightly. Everyone was terrified of spam. Terrified of haupia. Insane mainlanders. This is why every crap “Hawaiian” restaurant on the mainland only serves teriyaki chicken. Sad state of affairs.
Yeah, capybara, tell me about it. I’ve given up on mainland Hawaiian restaurants. Even the ones which tout an authentic “plate lunch” just don’t seem to measure up, somehow. Maybe it’s just being in Hawaii that makes the plain old macaroni salad taste so ambrosial over there! So, if I crave ahi poke I must make my own. In fact I’m planning on trying to make Korean tako poke this weekend if I have time.
I have not had haupia and indeed had to look it up to see what it is that you made. You mean people were afraid of homemade coconut pudding?!? Philistines.
1 small can of regular Spam
bottled teriyaki sauce
1/4 tsp fresh grated ginger
2 sheets of nori, each cut into thirds
2 cups of raw Japanese rice, cooked according to the package or in a rice cooker
Start the rice cooking. Open the can of Spam and save the can. Turn the “loaf” of Spam on its side and slice it into six equal-size slices. Fry the slices over medium heat until they’re crisp and drain them. Put a couple of tablespoons of teriyaki sauce on a plate and stir in the grated ginger, and put the Spam onto the sauce, turning them once so that they’re coated.
Have ready a bowl of salted water. Wet your hands with salt water (prevents rice from sticking), and pack into the Spam can about 1/2 cup of cooked warm rice, pressing it out so that it’s even and firmly packed. Bang the can, open side down, onto the counter to knock the cake of rice out, top it with a sauced Spam slice, and wrap one of the nori pieces around it.
Note: be sure that you, as cook, get one of the freshly-wrapped musubi while the seaweed is still crackly and crisp. Latecomers must settle for damp seaweed.
You’ll have extra rice left over, so experiment with making other types of musubi: triangular, round, etc., and sprinkle “furakake” over them.
I’ve made homemade poke from sushi-grade fish and it’s brilliant (and since spam and coconut milk terrify others, fuggedaboutit with the poke).
And remember guava cake? I’ve approximated how to do it. Yum.
Damn you people. Now I had to go buy a can of spam. It’s for the, um, Super Bowl, yeah. . .
For the guava cake, just make an angel food mix but instead of any liquids use guava juice instead (I’ve seen Hawaiian Sun cans all over the mainland)–it doesn’t have the exact right pink color but it’s close. Top with a layer of cream cheese frosting with a guava-extract-and-cornstarch gel frosting.
Fo haupia, stay get one t’ing coconut milk (can-kine mo sweet but I tuse one can and fill it out wit one real coconut) and boil da t’ing one minute and add one leedle beet co’n sta’ch fo t’ickin-up. Let em cool. Cut squares. All pau.
For the rice, I’ve always made it like sushi rice with the sugar and vinegar and fanning it. That’s how I had it in Hawai’i.
We’ve got a place in Chicago called Aloha Grill that does a pretty good plate lunch, you can get teriyaki, chicken katsu, spam musubi along with passion fruit and guava juices. The only thing they don’t have that I miss are the long rice noodles instead of the macaroni salad
