Course | Snack |
---|---|
Place of origin | United States |
Region or state | Hawaii |
Serving temperature | Hot or cold |
Main ingredients | Spam, rice, nori, soy sauce |
Spam musubi is a snack and lunch food composed of a slice of grilled Spam sandwiched either in between or on top of a block of rice, wrapped together with nori in the tradition of Japanese onigiri .
Inexpensive and portable, Spam musubi are commonly found near cash registers in convenience stores or mom-and-pop shops all over Hawaii, the Marianas [ citation needed ] and Hawaiian barbecue restaurants in the mainland United States. [1] Musubi can be easily made with the right materials, and typically only uses spam, rice, some salt, nori and shoyu (soy sauce). In Hawaii, musubi with spam from a can or homemade luncheon meat is eaten as a snack or served in formal restaurants. [2]
Spam musubi is a form of musubi, which originally came from Hawaii. It was a popular item among the lunchboxes of Hawaiian plantation workers. [3]
The origin of Spam musubi is disputed. Survivors of the Japanese American internment camps on the mainland of the United States claim to have invented the precursor to Spam musubi, when they placed seasoned slices of Spam on white rice in a baking pan. [4] However, most origin stories focus on Spam's ubiquity in Hawaii during and in the aftermath of World War II. With few other options, the canned meat was incorporated into local cuisines wherever American troops were stationed. For example, South Korea's budae-jjigae, a stew of surplus U.S. military foods, included Spam. In the United Kingdom, where Spam was ubiquitous during the hardship of the post-War years, Spam acquired a stigma exemplified by the 1970 Monty Python sketch. Spam may not have been abandoned in the Pacific like it was in the U.K. simply because of the comparative economic deprivation experienced in the Pacific region. [5]
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin said of Spam musubi in 2002 that "There is no definitive history for this aberration." Still, the newspaper relayed that a 2001 cookbook stated that the potential creator is Mitsuko Kaneshiro, who began selling them out of City Pharmacy on Pensacola Street in Honolulu and by the early 1980s was selling 500 handmade Spam musubi a day out of her own shop, Michan's Musubi. [6] The other person said to be the creator of Spam musubi is Barbara Funamura of Kauai. Funamura sold Spam musubi out of the Joni-Hana restaurant in the Kukui Grove Center. The Garden Island in 1983 described it as, "Spam and rice, two local favorites, are combined in an enormous musubi (rice ball) wrapped in nori (sheets of dried seaweed)." Eventually Funamura's musubi was made using a box mold, taking on its familiar form. [7]
In 1999, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue introduced the Hawaii regional snack as a menu item in its first mainland U.S. restaurant in Puente Hills, California. [8] As the Hawaii-based chain grew across several American states, so did the awareness and popularity of the snack, eventually becoming a mainstay on the menu, and making L&L the first restaurant chain to make the snack available nationally. [9]
On August 8, 2021, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue established "National Spam Musubi Day" to celebrate the iconic snack from Hawaii. The holiday was officially recognized by Hawaii Governor David Y. Ige. with a public proclamation. [10]
Spam musubi is the serving suggestion on tins of Teriyaki flavor Spam. [11] Spam Musubi, generally together with egg and sometimes called Potama (for Pork+Tamago/Egg), is a staple of Okinawan cuisine. [12] The nori is generally larger and wraps the entire sandwich.
Typical preparation begins with grilling or frying slices of Spam, sometimes with a light teriyaki flavor. It uses a sauce in which soy sauce and granulated sugar are typically the basic ingredients. Using a mold the same size as a slice of Spam, a layer of cooked rice is pressed down over a strip of nori, with a slice of Spam on top of that, and then, optionally, another layer of rice. The mold is removed and the nori is wrapped over the top and around the musubi. [13] Guam's Pacific Daily News describes the local version: "a slice of Spam is bathed in teriyaki sauce before topping a mound of rice with a dash of furikake and wrapped in a strip of nori." [14] Another Guam recipe calls for Sriracha mayonnaise. [15]
Nori(Japanese: 海苔) is a dried edible seaweed used in Japanese cuisine, usually made from species of the red algae genus Pyropia, including P. yezoensis and P. tenera. It has a strong and distinctive flavor, and is generally made into flat sheets and used to wrap rolls of sushi or onigiri.
Sushi is a Japanese dish of prepared vinegared rice, usually with some sugar and salt, plus a variety of ingredients, such as vegetables, and any meat, but most commonly seafood. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is "sushi rice", also referred to as shari (しゃり), or sumeshi (酢飯).
Spam is a brand of processed canned pork and ham made by Hormel Foods Corporation, an American multinational food processing company. It was introduced in the United States in 1937 and gained popularity worldwide after its use during World War II. As of 2003, Spam was sold in 41 countries, and trademarked in more than 100, on six continents.
A bento is a Japanese-style single-portion take-out or home-packed meal, often for lunch, typically including rice and packaged in a box with a lid. Outside Japan, similar meals are common in other East and Southeast Asian culinary styles, especially within Chinese, Korean, Singaporean, Taiwanese cuisines and more, as rice is a common staple food in the region. The term bento is derived from the Chinese term biandang, which means "convenient" or "convenience".
Onigiri, also known as omusubi (お結び) or nigirimeshi (握り飯), is a Japanese rice ball made from white rice. It is usually formed into triangular or cylindrical shapes, and wrapped in nori (seaweed). Onigiri traditionally have sour or salty fillings such as umeboshi, salted salmon, katsuobushi, kombu, tarako or mentaiko, or takanazuke. Because it is easily portable and eaten by hand, onigiri has been used as portable food or bento from ancient times to the present day. Originally, it was used as a way to use and store left-over rice, but it later became a regular meal. Many Japanese convenience stores and supermarkets stock their onigiri with various fillings and flavors. It has become so mainstream that it is even served in izakayas and sit-down restaurants. There are even specialized shops which only sell onigiri to take out. Due to the popularity of this trend in Japan, onigiri has become a popular staple in Japanese restaurants worldwide.
Donburi is a Japanese "rice-bowl dish" consisting of fish, meat, vegetables or other ingredients simmered together and served over rice. Donburi meals are usually served in oversized rice bowls which are also called donburi. If one needs to distinguish, the bowl is called donburi-bachi and the food is called donburi-mono.
Fried rice is a dish of cooked rice that has been stir-fried in a wok or a frying pan and is usually mixed with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, seafood, or meat. It is often eaten by itself or as an accompaniment to another dish. Fried rice is a popular component of East Asian, Southeast Asian and certain South Asian cuisines, as well as a staple national dish of Indonesia. As a homemade dish, fried rice is typically made with ingredients left over from other dishes, leading to countless variations. Fried rice first developed during the Sui dynasty in China.
Saimin is a noodle soup dish common in the contemporary cuisine of Hawaii. Traditionally consisting of soft wheat egg noodles served in a hot dashi garnished with diced green onions and a thin slice of kamaboko, modern versions of saimin include additional toppings such as char siu, sliced Spam, sliced egg, bok choy, mushrooms, or shredded nori. When Chinese dumplings are added to the noodle soup, it is seen on menus as the heartier wonton min. All saimin establishments have their own, often secret recipe for the soup base, but primarily use kombu and dried shrimp as major ingredients. Common table condiments mixed in the saimin broth are Chinese hot mustard and soy sauce, added in small quantities according to each individual's taste. Many local residents of Hawaii also enjoy barbecued teriyaki beef sticks (skewers) or American hamburgers as a side dish.
The plate lunch is a quintessentially Hawaiian meal, roughly analogous to Southern U.S. meat-and-threes. The combination of American and pan-Asian influence arose naturally in Hawaii, and has spread beyond it.
Loanwords from the Japanese language in Hawaiʻi appear in various parts of the culture. Many loanwords in Hawaiian Pidgin derive from the Japanese language. The linguistic influences of the Japanese in Hawaiʻi began with the first immigrants from Japan in 1868 and continues with the large Japanese American population in Hawaiʻi today.
The cuisine of Hawaii incorporates five distinct styles of food, reflecting the diverse food history of settlement and immigration in the Hawaiian Islands.[a]
Loco moco is a dish featured in contemporary Hawaii cuisine. The traditional loco moco consists of white rice, topped with a hamburger patty and brown gravy, and finally a sunny-side up fried egg. These ingredients must exist in the dish to be named loco moco. No other egg variations are considered traditional and the stacking of the dish must be in the aforementioned order to be considered traditional. Variations to egg style, meats, and stacking alters the naming of the dish. Modern (non-traditional) presentations of the dish may include other toppings and side dishes such as grilled onions and macaroni or potato salad.
L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, known also as L&L Drive-Inn or colloquially as L&L, is a Hawaii-themed franchise restaurant chain based in Honolulu, Hawaii, centered on the plate lunch.
The cuisine of the Mariana Islands is largely made up of meat dishes, including pork, poultry, and meat from other land mammals. Some popular land animals consumed include Mariana fruit bat. Guam and the Northern Marianas split in 1899, when Spain transferred Guam to the United States but the northern islands to Germany, and so there are many similarities, especially the Chamorro food culture.
Norimaki (海苔巻) are various Japanese dishes wrapped with nori seaweed, most commonly a kind of sushi, makizushi (巻き寿司).
Ate-Oh-Ate is a small chain of Hawaiian restaurants in the Portland metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of Oregon. The business has two locations in Portland and another in Beaverton. Named after the area code 808 in Hawaii, the restaurant's logo depicts a "happy, well-fed" pig. Ben Dyer, David Kreifels, and Jason Owens are co-chefs and co-owners.
Göteborg musubi or UFOs, is a food that combines a slice of Goteborg sausage with a ball of rice in the tradition of Japanese onigiri. The Goteborg musubi is commonly associated with the island of Kauai. However, they are made and sold throughout Hawaii in more recent years.
Okazuya or okazu-ya are a Japanese-style delicatessen common in Hawaii. Unlike western delicatessens found in North America or Europe, an okazuya is an establishment that sells readymade Japanese-styled food. "Okazu" refers to a side dish to accompany rice, while "ya" refers to a retail establishment.