Spam ''musubi'' is a snack and lunch food composed of a slice of grilled

Spam Spam most often refers to: * Spam (food), a consumer brand product of canned processed pork of the Hormel Foods Corporation * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ...

sandwiched either in between or on top of a block of

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

, wrapped together with ''nori'' in the tradition of Japanese ''

onigiri , also known as or , is a Japanese cuisine, 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 ''um ...

.''

Inexpensive and portable, Spam ''musubi'' are commonly found near cash registers in

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, bakkal, bodega, corner store, corner shop, superette or mini-mart is a small retail store that stocks a range of everyday items such as convenience food, groceries, beverages, tobacco products, lotter ...

s or mom-and-pop shops all over Hawaii and in Hawaiian barbecue restaurants in the mainland United States. ''Musubi'' 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.

History

Spam musubi is a form of musubi, which originally came from Hawaii. It was a popular item among the lunchboxes of Hawaiian plantation workers. 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. However, most origin stories focus on Spam's ubiquity in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

during and in the aftermath of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. With few other options, the canned meat was incorporated into local cuisines wherever American troops were stationed. For example,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

's budae-jjigae, a stew of surplus U.S. military foods, included Spam. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, 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. Spam and egg musubi

The ''

Honolulu Star-Bulletin The ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin'' was a daily newspaper based in Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. At the time publication ceased on June 6, 2010, it was the second largest daily newspaper in the state of Hawaii (after the ''Honol ...

'' 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 Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

and by the early 1980s was selling 500 handmade Spam musubi a day out of her own shop, Michan's Musubi. The other person said to be the creator of Spam musubi is Barbara Funamura of

Kauai Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands. It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the 21st-largest island in the United States. Kauai lies 73 m ...

. 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. 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. 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. 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. Spam musubi is the serving suggestion on tins of Teriyaki flavor Spam. Spam Musubi, generally together with egg and sometimes called Potama (for Pork+Tamago/''Egg''), is a staple of

Okinawan cuisine is the cuisine of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The cuisine is also known as , a reference to the Ryukyu Kingdom. Due to differences in culture, historical contact between other regions, climate, vegetables and other ingredients, Okinawan cuisine ...

. The nori is generally larger and wraps the entire sandwich.

Preparation

Typical preparation begins with grilling or frying slices of

, sometimes with a light

teriyaki ''Teriyaki'' is a cooking technique in which foods are grilling#Overhead grilling, broiled or Grilling, grilled with a Glaze (cooking technique), glaze of soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Although commonly associated with Japanese cuisine, Fish ...

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. Guam's '' Pacific Daily News'' describes the local version: "a slice of Spam is bathed in

sauce before topping a mound of rice with a dash of

furikake is a dry Japanese condiment sprinkled on top of cooked rice, vegetables, and fish, or used as an ingredient in . It typically consists of a mixture of dried fish, sesame seeds, dried seaweed flakes, sugar, salt, and monosodium glutamate. O ...

and wrapped in a strip of nori." Another Guam recipe calls for Sriracha mayonnaise.

History

Preparation

See also

References

Further reading