Spam Delight

On the way back to my apartment in Long Beach, we passed by the Hawaiian restaurant named Big Island Hawaiian Barbeque on Ximeno and Atherton. Right away, I get the craving for some spam musubis. If you don’t know what those are, you are really missing out.

When I arrived home I thought, who came up with the delicious treat? The Hawaiians! And when thinking of the Hawaiian culture, one thinks of their favorite canned food, spam. They have many creative ways of serving it. Two of my favorites are the Hawaiian Spam Pizza and Spam Musubi. The Hawaiian Spam Pizza is obviously a pizza with spam as the main topping. But not many people know what Spam Musubi is, and if they do know, they think it is a type of sushi. Although it is very similar in sight and feel, it is not considered to be sushi.

Spam Musubi is composed of rice and spam rolled in seaweed. Because it is rolled in seaweed, people automatically assume it is some sort of sushi. It is actually a Hawaiian twist to a Japanese dish. Because the Hawaiian Islands may experience natural disasters like hurricanes and tsunamis, they need canned foods like spam. Because spam does not need to be refrigerated, it can last long periods of time in storage.

Musubi means “tied together,” with the use of nori also known as seaweed. It is composed of only four ingredients: sushi rice, soy sauce, nori sheets, and most important of them all, spam. It is usually eaten with one’s hands. It is the best of both worlds, easy to make and easy to eat.

So the next time you need something easy to make and easy to eat to fill you up on the go, remember these two words, SPAM MUSUBI.