WHY SPAM RECIPES?
(or go directly to the SPAM Recipes pages)
In order to help those not familiar with my daughter Robyn's attraction to SPAM, I present here a short history of SPAM as reported by WIKIPEDIA and even Some SPAM Haikus. Since she spent many of her "growing-up years" in Hawaii, she fell in love with this "delicacy"!
United States and territories
In the United States, the residents of the state of Hawaii and the territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) consume the most Spam per capita. On average, each person on Guam consumes 16 tins of Spam each year and the numbers at least equal this in the CNMI. Guam, Hawaii, and Saipan, the CNMI's principal island, have the only McDonald's restaurants that feature Spam on the menu. Burger King, in Hawaii, began serving Spam in 2007 on its menu to compete with the local McDonald's chains.
In Hawaii, Spam is so popular it is sometimes dubbed "The Hawaiian Steak." It is traditionally reheated (cooked), resulting in a different taste than Spam eaten by many Americans on the mainland, who may eat Spam cold. One popular Spam dish in Hawaii is Spam musubi, in which cooked Spam is combined with rice and nori seaweed and classified as onigiri.
Spam was introduced into the aforementioned areas, in addition to other islands in the Pacific such as Okinawa and the Philippine Islands, during the U.S. military occupation in World War II. Since fresh meat was difficult to get to the soldiers on the front, World War II saw the largest use of Spam. GIs started eating Spam for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (Some soldiers referred to Spam as "ham that didn't pass its physical" and "meatloaf without basic training.") Surpluses of Spam from the soldiers' supplies made their way into native diets. Consequently, Spam is a unique part of the history and effects of U.S. influence in the Pacific.
The perception of Spam in Hawaii is very different from that on the mainland. Despite the large amount of mainlanders who eat Spam, and the various recipes that have been made from it, Spam, along with most canned food, is often stigmatized on the mainland as "poor people food." In Hawaii, Treet, and all similar canned meat product other than Spam are referred to as "lunch meat" or "luncheon meat" are stigmatized in Hawaii as "poor people Spam."
And now, the Haikus about this
"Hawaiian Soul Food"
The famous Spam Haikus by Michael Lubic
Blue can of steel
what promise do you hold?
salt flesh so ripe
Can of metal, slick
soft center, so cool, moistening
I yearn for your salt
Twist, pull the sharp lid
Jerks and cuts me deeply but
Spam, aaah, my poultice.
silent, former pig
one communal awareness
myriad pink bricks
you wait to feed me
stoic vigil on the shelf
ah my vibrant pink
jelly for mortar
seven hundred tins and more
I build a Spam house
my friend pork shoulder
I return to you. this time
I've brought mayonnaise
above all others
porcine treat without equal
there is but one Spam
clad in metal, proud
no mere salt-curing for you
you are not bacon
and who dares mock Spam?
you? you? you are not worthy
of one rich pink fleck
Grotesque pinkish mass
In a blue can on a shelf
Quivering alone
Like some spongy rock
A granite, my piece of Spam
In sunlight on my plate
Oh Argentina!
Your little tin of meat soars
Above the pampas
The color of Spam
is natural as the sky:
A block of sunrise
Little slab of meat
In a wash of clear jelly
Now I heat the pan
Oh tin of pink meat
I ponder what you may be:
Snout or ear or feet?
In the cool morning
I fry up a slab of Spam
A dog barks next door
Pink tender morsel
Glistening with salty gel
What the hell is it?
Ears, snouts, and innards,
A homogenous mass
Pass another slice
Cube of cold pinkness
Yellow specks of porcine fat
Give me a spork please
Old man seeks doctor
"I eat Spam daily", he says.
Angioplasty
Highly unnatural
The tortured shape of this "food"
A small pink coffin
Slicing your sweet self
Salivating in suspense
Sizzle, sizzle..Spam
Pink beefy temptress
I can no longer remain
Vegetarian
Spam Recipes
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