Spam Lovers Beware

[JDub]

AS some of you know, I'm originally from Hawaii and hopefully will end up living there again before too long. We are first in a lot of dubious things in the state but one of the strangest is we're the number one consumer of Spam per capita in the country with canned corned beef close behind (it's a legacy of WW2 meat shortages). Yeah, we know it's bad but we've turned it into a cultural food staple that pops up everywhere from the local 7/11 to the fanciest restaurants. We eat Spam Musubi (Spam on a block of rice wrapped in nori), Spam and eggs, Spam and Cabbage, Spam and Saimin (like ramen), Spam and fried noodles, Teriyaki Spam, Spam Tempura, Spam and poi, Spam casserole, there's even - no kidding - Spam Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Even Mc D's sells Spam, rice, and eggs for bfast - only place in the world. You get the idea, we like Spam. So do a lot of Nomad's - I've seen more than a few cans stocking folk's vehicles

When you walk into a Hawaii supermarket you're going to be confronted with a literal wall of Spam in flavors you never see on the mainland - teriyaki (good but too mushy), Portuguese sausage, lot of "Portagee's" came to the island on whalers and jumped ship in the 1800's. The sausage they brought is also favorite and Mc D's also serves that (see photo from my last trip), there's Filipino Tocino, Siracha flavored, on and on. The most shoplifted thing in the store? Spam of course - they even resort to locking it up in big plastic bins! Hawaii transplants don't Leggo the Eggo either. NOPE! To this day, I stock it and carry some along on trips and I'll have my favorite breakfast - Spam, eggs, and white sticky rice at least a couple of times a month though I try to stay away from it (by the way, if you like Spam, try the 25% less sodium Spam - not the Lite but the 25% less sodium. Much less salty and tastes more like something vaguely porky... Love my Spam. Or I did.

I am (sadly) going to have to go cold Spam from now on... Why? because it's NOT Spam anymore... All these years regardless of how they processed the stuff (it lasts forever as you know), they (Hormel) at least always started with pork... Well no more, I bought a can a few days ago and was shuffling my pantry around and happened to look at the ingredients label on the new can - know what's been added? The dreaded "mechanically separated chicken" that so many food processors have gone to - Utterly Gross. I checked a slightly older can and it was still pork only so the change has been recent. No more Spam for me and I'm gonna hoard the few cans I have right now of the old stuff. In the future I'll sub it with DG's Clover Valley Luncheon Meat. It's actually pretty good and it's still all pork (I checked) and it's also packed in Denmark and comes in that old heavy duty steel can which is good for longevity - $2.00 bucks at DG. Being part of the EU they have to meet much stricter guidelines than the state. But it's still not Spam... Why do they have to RUIN everything in quest of a few extra cents???

Rant off

Cheers


McD's Eggs, Rice, and Portuguese Sausage Breakfast from the Waikiki Mc D's. YUM. Just need little shoyu then WHACKUM!

 

[Ravella and X]

I carry one can of spam for old times sake. I guess the current can will be my last. The thing I have to have at least once a year though is loco moco. If I have it twice a year, I’ll prolly get fat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Now I want a slice of Hamura’s lilikoi pie.

 

[JDub]

I carry one can of spam for old times sake. I guess the current can will be my last. The thing I have to have at least once a year though is loco moco. If I have it twice a year, I’ll prolly get fat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Now I want a slice of Hamura’s lilikoi pie.

I do a loco moco about once a month when I have burgers left from grilling. It's Da GRAVY that makes it!
(I cheat, I use demi-glace). I haven't been to Hamura's in many years (the last time I was at Barking Sands). I miss the coco puffs from Liliha's on Oahu and Leonard's for malasadas...

The latest Time's supermarket weekly ad...

https://www.timessupermarkets.com/ads
Cheers!

 

[Ravella and X]

Dang JDub. I actually clicked on that, changed the store to Lihue, and read the ads

Stop that! I’m perfectly content here on the mainland If I took my little home on wheels to Kauai, I’d have to hide it in Jurassic park or da kine! No place to roll to… Kauai would eat it in 5 years, ya know.

 

[ahh_me2]

I just bought a few cans of Spam the other day, they were on sale! Actually i discovered Spam over ten years ago, love the stuff!
Anyway, after reading the OP, I had to look at the ingredients, lucky for me the only meat ingredient is Pork!
I'll have to keep an eye on ingredients down the road, see if anything changes, hope not.
In Canada here , maybe they have different ingredients for different markets?

 

[kklowell]

If you run across this product anywhere, it's very good, Very similar to Spam. I just checked, the first two ingredients are ham and pork.

 

[Morgana]

Heresy though it may be -- especially to folks with a connection to Spam Heaven (aka Hawaii) (another islands-missing expat-at-heart here) -- I think with processed meat products like that it's more a question of the spices than the base ingredient. Which you may not want to know too much about, even if it is officially pork.

Blind taste test, anyone?

I always wished they'd make a vegetarian version of Spam and call it Spofu.

 

[Malamute]

Im not seeing any info about chicken in it online or on their website*. I wonder if it was something in the lower sodium variety temporarily due to supply hold-ups?

Ive eaten spam for ages, sometimes right out of the can as lunch meat, often grilled with some sharp cheddar on toast for sandwiches, or with grilled with eggs for breakfast.

The little short cans make on the road (non camp equipped) lunches pretty simple without leftovers. Whatever i dont eat I dont feel too bad about giving the meager extras to the dog.

The DAK ham isnt too bad, its not a real solid piece of ham, sort of a hybrid between a real whole ham and spam. No chickens listed in the ingredients.

*Edit: I looked at the nutritional info, the regular spam has no chickens, the lower sodium one does. Check the varieties shown, they have the ingredients in the nutritional section on their website. https://www.spam.com/varieties

 

[user 32988]

Did you accidentally maybe grab one of the other-flavor cans of spam? There are about a dozen different flavors/types now... spicy, smoke, turkey spam, chicken spam... spam lite, low sodium spam... Maybe you accidentally grabbed a varietal?

 

[JDub]

If you run across this product anywhere, it's very good, Very similar to Spam. I just checked, the first two ingredients are ham and pork.View attachment 30265

That's going to be my sub when I'm in HNL. Tulip is widely sold there and it's a good product though it doesn't have the "cachet" that Spam does. It's made in Denmark too - probably by the same company that makes DG's Clover Valley. Same taste, same type of can.

Cheers!

 

[JDub]

Did you accidentally maybe grab one of the other-flavor cans of spam? There are about a dozen different flavors/types now... spicy, smoke, turkey spam, chicken spam... spam lite, low sodium spam... Maybe you accidentally grabbed a varietal?

Could be - I usually have 2 or 3 kinds. I'll have to go down to the pantry and check. Given a choice, my favorite for breakfast is the Tocino. Very hard to find on the mainland. Regardless mechanically separated chicken does NOT belong in Spam! I've been noticing a drift in the product lately. Not as solid and no gel anymore (dat's FLAVOR)

Cheers!

 

[JDub]

Im not seeing any info about chicken in it online or on their website*. I wonder if it was something in the lower sodium variety temporarily due to supply hold-ups?

Ive eaten spam for ages, sometimes right out of the can as lunch meat, often grilled with some sharp cheddar on toast for sandwiches, or with grilled with eggs for breakfast.

The little short cans make on the road (non camp equipped) lunches pretty simple without leftovers. Whatever i dont eat I dont feel too bad about giving the meager extras to the dog.

The DAK ham isnt too bad, its not a real solid piece of ham, sort of a hybrid between a real whole ham and spam. No chickens listed in the ingredients.

*Edit: I looked at the nutritional info, the regular spam has no chickens, the lower sodium one does. Check the varieties shown, they have the ingredients in the nutritional section on their website. https://www.spam.com/varieties

I've got some DAK too but for my taste the Bristol Brand Hickory flavored version is way better. Dollar Tree sell small cans of "chunked ham" for $1.25 now (inflation). It's a solid packed can vs the liquid in all the other brands - much better value...

Cheers!

 

[JDub]

Heresy though it may be -- especially to folks with a connection to Spam Heaven (aka Hawaii) (another islands-missing expat-at-heart here) -- I think with processed meat products like that it's more a question of the spices than the base ingredient. Which you may not want to know too much about, even if it is officially pork.

Blind taste test, anyone?

I always wished they'd make a vegetarian version of Spam and call it Spofu.

SPOFU!!!!!!???? "To the STAKE with the Heretic!" I love the fresh tofu you can get there. There's a little factory on Kalihi? St I think. Almost across from the original Chun Wah Kam's Noodles. You can get any kind of tofu and fresh soy milk there. They have a maple flavored version dat's ONO! Made that day too. Chicken Tofu (see recipe below) is one of my favorite recipes. Healthy except for the sugar and sodium (like everything in local cuisine...)

https://onolicioushawaii.com/chicken-tofu/
Cheers!

 

[JDub]

Dang JDub. I actually clicked on that, changed the store to Lihue, and read the ads

Stop that! I’m perfectly content here on the mainland If I took my little home on wheels to Kauai, I’d have to hide it in Jurassic park or da kine! No place to roll to… Kauai would eat it in 5 years, ya know.

Wed's are the day all the stores there put out their sales flyers - I take guilty pleasure in reading them all... This one's from the store I usually shop at when I'm there - Japanese owned called Don Quijote's - Yeah, weird name - used to be a Daiei years ago, but it's got everything. Super good prepared foods, sushi, and bento section. Nothing spectacular, just solid local grindz.

http://donquijotehawaii.com/in-our-store.php
I think you should go back and open a popup bakery taking orders all week and either have customer pickup or delivering a couple times a week. Lots of out of work chefs started a bunch of them over the last couple years and they've become big with the pandemic thing going on. You'd be RICH. What? You don't like all your leather goods to be a nice GREEN color from all the mold???

Cheers!

 

[abnorm]

Anybody remember ............Mr Blandings "If it's not WHAM..........you're not eating Ham"

 

[Ravella and X]

Here in the dry, dusty west, I’m back to my original footwear that I’m most at home in (and that wouldn’t last 3 months in Hawaii) — cowboy boots
But speaking of footwear, It took me sooo long to be able to stand wearing anything but slippahs.

Hey! Wasn’t this thread about SPAM?

 

[Ravella and X]

Oh gosh Doug. Nope!
Who is Mr. Blandings?

 

[Ravella and X]

SPAM:
Stuff
Posing
As
Meat

 

[JDub]

Anybody remember ............Mr Blandings "If it's not WHAM..........you're not eating Ham"

LOVE that movie! We lived in a house very similar to that when we moved to a family house in Silvermine Ct in the late 60's for a while to help my Grandmother after my grandfather had died. It was actually my GGrandmother Louisa May's house and it was right across the street from where Johnny Gruelle who wrote all the Raggedy Ann stories lived. My Grandfather and he were buds. This is a shot of it in 1906 along w a shot of my Grandfather George in his art studio in the house in the 20's.

 

[frater secessus]

I've got a can of walmart house brand spam in front of me and it shows only pork, not chicken. I do find the idea of being a Spam purist a bit amusing.