Hawaii's people love Spam. We eat an average of 6 cans per person
every year. The salty pink luncheon meat isn't just for lunch. We eat
it for breakfast, for dinner and anykine snacktime! We buy it in the
can, or fried with eggs at McDonald's, or pressed on rice at 7-11. We
eat it at home, in (otherwise respectable) restaurants and at the beach.
But what is stuff, and how did it become the greasy heart of
local cuisine?
Specially Processed Army Meat
Hawaii was the staging ground for the Pacific front in World War II.
Meat was rationed at the same time the US military presence increased.
Spam was a regular part of military rations. In the can it never expires,
and it doesn't require refrigeration. These qualities which were
essential to the military also made Spam ideal for the tropical Hawaii
climate in a time when refrigeration was not widespread or
reliable. Soldiers were happy to
trade thier Spam ration for delicious local food, and Hawaii people found out
how good Spam is with rice. And in saimin. And fried crispy. And in
any other way you can think of slicing it -and some others that are frankly
unimaginable to the uninitiated.
Super Pink Alien Meat
Spam remained popular on the Mainland through the 1950's as a jet-age
modern marvel. Housewives studded the quivering pink block with cloves
and ringed it with cherry-stuffed pinapple rings. It was floated in cream
sauce and entombed in that other miracle of food science-fiction, Jello.
This explains why Spam became so unpopular in most of the country, except as the butt
of cruel jokes. Today, retro-chic has revitalized Spam's popularity. The Internet
has spread spam-love and spam-lore. Thousands of Spam devotees on the World Wide Web
discuss our beloved ham in a can. Always, they point out, Hawaii is Spam paradise.
Skunk, Possum And Mouse
What is in the familiar blue rectangular can? What does the acronym SPAM stand for? Rumors
abound. Most are silly. Some are ominous (Some People Are Missing!) Hormel swears there's
nothing in the basic version but pork, ham, salt, water, sugar and sodium nitrite. SPAM stands
for nothing but SPiced hAM. Dull, you say? Anti-climactic? No wayz! Let us introduce you
to Spam's exciting new varieties!