Hawaiians like SPAM?

[Norman Bernstein]

Who woulda thunk it? :D

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19165747/

[Bruce Hooke]

Now THAT I would not have predicted! Who'd have thought that Minnesota's finest compressed meat product would be a hit in Hawaii?

:D

[Milo Christensen]

If any of the open early places on my way to work offered a fried egg and SPAM breakfast sandwich, I'd stop there several times a week.

[PeterSibley]

Something that happens to colonised peoples ? Maybe they use it as bait in craypots ?

[bamamick]

In small doses, of course.

Mickey Lake

[JimJ]

Here is a link to Monty Python's Spam song
http://www.detritus.org/spam/skit.html
Spam games
http://www.spamspamspamspam.co.uk/go/game/

Spam and eggs for breky and spam burgers for lunch. What more could you want?
It's great when you do not have a fridge

Jim

[WX]

It probably dates back to the Second World War, a lot of island communities developed a taste for it. It's very popular in PNG. It may have a lot to do with the fact it's fairly cheap and being in a tin it keeps well...very important fact if you don't have a fridge.

[ccmanuals]

:DI put it right up there with scrapple.

[S/V Laura Ellen]

It's time for a sing along. Everybody join in!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JYtE_eUeMw4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ODshB09FQ8w

[John B]

Corned beef in a can is a big Pacific island thing down a bit further south.

[Keith Wilson]

The legend is that by far the highest per capita consumption of Spam is in those Pacific islands where they formerly practiced cannibalism. I have no idea if it's true.

[John B]

Are you saying that there are pacific islands where they didn't practise cannibalism?

[PatCox]

My father in law lived in Samoa for some time. They love both spam and corned beef. If a visitor comes they will serve the visitor spam as an honor and eat the shameful poverty food called "lobster" themselves.

Its an often repeated legend that spam tastes like human flesh and thats why they like it.

They also love dried peas, which they make into pea soup with the spam in it. My father in law said there was a phrase "ooma lava pea soupa" (its pidgin) which means something about pea soup, but I forget what.

Probably all a result of the war.

[paladin]

yup....and some of those same folks build "airplanes" out of wood and rushes, and light them like bonfires.....during the war it was a signal and food (spam) would be air dropped to these islanders.....but they didn't entirely give up human flesh.......as the japanese found out the hard way........I hit a few islands when I was bumming around, and was told that I was the first white man to visit in many many years, the reefs were too low and too many coral heads, no harbors....my 31 foot tri didn't need much water...

[BrianW]

It's quite true. I lived there for 2 years (Hilo) and my wife (who's hawaiian) introduced me to span and rice balls. I don't care for musubi (seaweed) so I take mine sans musubi. But my daughters live it.

Hawaiians also refer to all underwear as 'BVDs' just like the name brand. I'm told much like spam, it's due to the fact that the barges only brought so much stuff, with little variety. The only underwear barged in were BVD brand. So the name stuck.

We don't eat much spam these days, except as part of a rice ball or chopped up into Top Ramen.

[WX]

as the japanese found out the hard way...
They ate more than their share of long pig.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

If any of the open early places on my way to work offered a fried egg and SPAM breakfast sandwich, I'd stop there several times a week.

Spam on a stick (http://spiritburner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6166)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/132/317748112_24b3d622d7.jpg

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Also popular in the Philippines.

I know that my wife has a secret hoard of two tins, at the back of the kitchen cupboard, which she would not be seen dead with, as she is a pretty serious cook in the Elizabeth David - Janet Grigson manner.

She just likes to look at them when she feels homesick!:)

[Art Read]

It's pretty logical if you think about it. Cannibalism aside. Pretty much unlimited shelf life, government, wartime contract, easily portable and it doesn't taste like breadfruit. Most wild, island hogs and goats had long since been hunted down and eaten, and it's not like most islands were getting weekly, air-frieghted shipments of top sirloin. (At least not for the enlisted ranks and civilians...) It became a "luxury item". Still is in many places.

I had a can in the galley of a schooner I used to run. God knows how old, or how "well travelled". When provisions got low on a slow offshore passage, it tasted pretty good fried up with the last of the eggs aboard. (But the "jelly" on top WAS a little disturbing...)

[Mrleft8]

.... Consider that Hawaiians also like Poi....

[PatCox]

I like kim chi.

[John E Hardiman]

Yes they like spam, but it was the spam sushi that I couldn't really come to grips with. :confused:

[Uncle Duke]

Not really related to "liking" spam, here is a lovely island song from the wonderful "Little Village" (John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner) - "Do You Want My Job"

Cool breezes from the mountains blow
As I wake up and dress to go
On the island, dawn is breaking
In the harbor, tanker's waiting

From the land of the rising sun
They bring their old plutonium
And we unload it in the bay
For two dollars forty cents a day

Do you want my
Do you want my
Do you want my
Do you want my job

I hump the stuff, I take the cash
So my kids can wear Adidas
And if you live here, home, you know
We ain't got no place else to go

I remember when the air was sweet
And I brought home the fish to eat
Now we buy Spam from the grocery store
'Cause you can't eat the fish no more.

Do you want my
Do you want my
Do you want my
Do you want my job

[Nanoose]

Could be the hotter climate and the higher salt content...

[WX]

It's more to do with the lack of readily available protein. That's why canabalism was practiced in a number of areas...they didn't eat people because they were uncivilised, they were hungry.

[rbgarr]

Speaking of surprising tastes: Decades ago I worked for a Maine sardine packing company. The place in the US where we shipped the most canned sardines?

Bristol, Tennessee.

Maybe it wasn't exactly a 'preference' though. Is there a prison near there??

[Bob (oh, THAT Bob)]

It was my understanding that the introduction and popularity of Spam into Hawaii was definitely due to WWII.

I normally eschew processed meats, but a girlfriend loved the stuff, and I found that I could cut it into small pieces and it would fry wonderfully crispy in a pan before scrambling eggs with it, I must say it is good that way.

[GregH]

What with the high prices in Hawaii, it makes good financial sense. Each time I visit there, I'm amazed at the price of everything. Can't imagine how the average person can afford to live there!

[WX]

Everything is imported though, what do you expect, islanders living the care free life in paradise...they've been introduced to the protestant work ethic.

[The Bigfella]

The main staple food in Port Moresby (capital city of Papua New Guinea) when I was up there was canned fish - all imported. One of the locals was a bit peeved by the fact that we apparently (ie in her view) only considered it fit for cat food.

[WX]

I had a local girl pull the top off a stubby of SP with her teeth for me when I was up there, man if I had tried that I would have lost a least two fillings.
I watched workers at Lae abattoir selling offal over the fence to the locals.

[The Bigfella]

I had a local girl pull the top off a stubby of SP with her teeth for me when I was up there

Gee, I can think of quite a few responses to that .......

[Phillip Allen]

I read once (Paddling through Paradice) that spam is preferred by reformed canibals...(what does that say?)

[The Bigfella]

I read once (Paddling through Paradice) that spam is preferred by reformed canibals...(what does that say?)


I was told that when I walked down the main street of Mt Hagen (PNG Highlands town) that I was walking past people who had eaten human flesh. I also walked down a few back streets and was told later that that just wasn't done.

[Wild Dingo]

Canned dog has just one purpose... well okay two... but mainly its great for dog tucker for a dying muttley... and the other its great to have the reassurance that there is SOMETHING to eat when your hitch hiking around... always had at least 2 cans of canned dog and anther 2 of sardines in my swag when I was a lusty stupid young fella... rarely ever had to eat them but it was sure good to know they were there sometimes

Quite interesting factor with me an canned dog... mum was a great secret collector of all things us kids never let on she was doing it but she would collect the weirdest things left behind on our comings and goings as we grew up... when she passed on and me and my elder sis were sorting her stuff we came up with boxes of things... all named dated and as much info on the package as she could put on it... and there in one of the cartons marked "Shane" was a couple of tins of canned dog!! One was tagged "Spam I bought for Shane when he hitchhiked to Cairns and back took it with him bought it back 1974, hitch hiked to Darwin took it with him bought it back 1977 never liked it so wouldnt eat it" and another marked "For Shane's job on Sandy Island 1979 thought he must eat it this time but he didnt" seems Id been given this one sometime before on one of my many comings and goings :rolleyes: Funny though... my younger brother at the barbie that night opened them up and with a quick couple of slices had them sizzling away on the hotplate as quick as a flash and before they could have been warm he had eaten them! :eek:

Canned dog to me is any processed meat in a can... dont care if its spam corned beef bully beef or whatever its crap and only fit for a dog on its last legs... gawd that stuff makes me gag!! :mad:

[WX]

Bigfella, you ever hear of 2KB while you were up there?
2 Kina in the Bush, never had any desire to sample it personally.
There were a lot of places not to walk by yourself up there...even in daytime.