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Spam


Heather

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Pate, Spam, potted meat, vienna sausages - they're all made of snoots and ears and tails and innards and all the other leftover bits, or, as I once heard the organic sausages at Farm Aid described, "they might be lips and anuses, but they're organic lips and anuses!" :)

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I am pleased to announce that our first international DonRockwell.com dinner will be here.
And this is what will be served:

Budae-jjiggae (Army Base Stew) 48.gif

During the Korean war, and for a time afterwards, people had little to eat. Most people had to fill their stomachs with the food distributed on the street called Kkulkkulijuk (meaning "pig's gruel"). People made this dish by combining left-over Spam and hot dogs from U.S. Army restaurants and whatever else was available. All the left-overs were put into a pot with water and boiled.

These days, restaurants usually use ramyeon noodles, ddeok (Korean rice cakes), sausages, meat, and goch'ujang paste for a hot and spicy taste which Koreans like the most. To get the right taste, Spam should be added.

Source: Lifeinkorea.com

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I am pleased to announce that our first international DonRockwell.com dinner will be here.

SpamJam, I love it! Hilarious. I note that the blogger is from Guam, where America's day begins, and Guam is a large consumer of SPAM much like Hawaii and the Phillippines. (Thanks to the U.S. military and post-war introduction of this "pork" product). SPAM and eggs with rice and soy sauce was a staple growing up. In Hawaii, SPAM sushi is also ubiquitous. Quite literally, SPAM sushi is a block of raw SPAM on sushi rice like a piece of nigiri, wrapped with a strip of seaweed.

I recently tried a New Jersey pork roll and thought it tasted like a better version of SPAM. Go figure.

And for those who seek SPAM enlightenment, check out "SPAM-ku, Tranquil Reflections on Luncheon Loaf" by John Nagamichi Cho. A sample: Moments of pleasure:/ The small noise when the seal breaks/When opening SPAM. Ruby rectangle/In a coruscating gel/Jewel on my plate.

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When rwtye was deployed to Palau, he also discovered that a common, local addition to sushi was Spam. And since the ladies making the sushi did not wash their hands after touching the Spam, pretty much all the sushi tasted of Spam to some extent (which was made even more tragic by the fact that the fish they used had usually been pulled from the ocean within the hour).

He was also served Spam-enhanced tapioca. :)

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When rwtye was deployed to Palau...
Also a delicacy in Hawaii. SPAM musubi -- block of sushi rice, slice of SPAM, tied togehter with nori. Found at most gas stations and 7-11 stores.

SPAM fried rice was the staple at most Chinese restaurants (upscale or drive in).

SPAM fried wontons was a potluck specialty of one friend. Surprisingly tasty.

SPAM and eggs on the breakfast menu at McDonald's.

Many SPAM t-shirts throughout the islands.

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SPAM, according to the producer, is "Special Cuts and Ham".

SPAM, according to Hormel, is a contraction of "Spiced Ham", its original name. A contest was held to come up with the new, shorter name.

SPAM's greatest contribution to Maryland, IMHO, is a couple hundred pounds worth of Art Donovan, including the thirty pound case he ate in nine days during WWII.

Slice mine a quarter-inch-thick and fry it up with breakfast, please.

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My late father was in WWII and he had to eat so much of it that he wouldn't eat it again, of his own accord. Thus, it only made an appearance in our household when he was out of town for a period of time. My mother would slice it up and put slices of canned pineapple on it and stick the whole thing in the broiler. This was part of turning ordinary food into "gourmet" back in the 1950s. I remember some of my friends treating SPAM sandwiches as a great treat :) "You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time . . ."

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My late father was in WWII and he had to eat so much of it that he wouldn't eat it again, of his own accord. Thus, it only made an appearance in our household when he was out of town for a period of time. My mother would slice it up and put slices of canned pineapple on it and stick the whole thing in the broiler. This was part of turning ordinary food into "gourmet" back in the 1950s. I remember some of my friends treating SPAM sandwiches as a great treat :) "You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time . . ."

I think that's generally what domestic cooking was like in most American households before the intercession of St. Julia.

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Spam is apparently a very common ingredient in Okinawan food. We met friends for dinner at an Okinawan joint last weekend, and were served no fewer than three dishes containing Spam. It made its first appearance in a stir fry ("champuru") of eggs, green onions, and goya (a bitter-tasting gourd that looks a lot like a big spiny cucumber), served as the eponymous pork product in "pork tamago," and encored in fu champuru, stir-fried wheat gluten, vegetables, and tofu. It was a surprisingly good complement to the bitterness of the goya.

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I bought two cans of spam the other day because I was soo amused by the descriptions on the back of the can and I intend to frame them and put them in my kitchen. Both my Brother and Father love the stuff and I had been served it on occasion as a child. In a fit of need (overhung) I opened a can (after carefully removing the amusing label) and cooked up 2 rather thin slices (approx 1/4 in.). I topped said slices with disgusting american cheesefood slices and pulled out the bottle of fantasticly hot ultra-green habanero hot sauce procured from my local bodega. I knew it wouldn't be good but I thought it would be bad in a good way. I was wrong. So very very wrong. ;) The saltiness of that stuff knocked my socks off. I can't even begin to craft an online word to convey the saltiness of that stuff (dehydrate the Atlantic and place all residue in a can with meat by-product = 2 cans). Do Pacific Islander's have have blood pressure issues? If so, I know why.

I ate about half nevertheless.

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