Oh, come on.It was a perfectly traditional New Year's Day meal of beans, ham, rice and greens. Just like Hoppin' John.
Beans for fortune, greens for prosperity.
But this lunch would more likely be found in Kailua than Kissimmee.
I admit I was just faking it. I have always wanted to try Spam musubi, but since I have no travel plans, it looked like I was going to have to make it myself rather than buy some in Hawaii.
The urgency got, uh, urgent when I came across a post for Spam musubi at Tastespotting. (I have tried to refind it, but it seems to be lost to cybermemory.) And suddenly I thought: This is ham and rice. Just add beans and cabbage, and we're all set for the first meal of the year!
So the beans are edamame, of course. And the cabbage is kimchi.
I will give you a brief lesson on making Spam musubi, because I can't link to the original source. Use Korean nori; it's thinner, lacier, more fragile. You can bite through it, easy. Save the can your Spam comes in, because you will use it to pack in some rice (you might season the rice with a trace of vinegar), and then whack out the rice cake onto the countertop. Fry the Spam slices; flavoring them with sugar and soy sauce seems unnecessary to me. Wrap the nori around your assembled stack sandwich (it really is take-along finger food). Done.
Verdict? Just damn yummy! Really good. Spam reeeeally needs some seaweed to bring it out of canned Spamminess, and it's perfect. I would do it again (and since I have half a can of Spam in the fridge, I will).
We called this meal Hoppin' Bruddah.
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21 comments:
Aloha, Cookie and mahalo for the tale of the dinner at your ohana. As usual, you went the extra mile to make something altogether different and -- as always -- entertaining.
Would have been more fun on a lanai, but we do what we can, no?
Kudzu: Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!
We really did enjoy the food.
A lanai would have been nice, but... it was cloudy today, and we used the heat of the furnace vents to dry laundry indoors. ;D
Just waitin' out winter.
I have a can of Spam that has been in my pantry for a couple of years. You are welcome to it. I bought an extra can for a contest. I have no motivation to ever use it. Did you know there is a Spam with bacon.
Happy New Year to You and Cranky from Chilebrown & Ms. Goofy
Now, that's totally cool! I admit to enjoying Spam about once very 10 years but you are absolutely correct, no need to add sugar or soy for salt - Spam already has both of those flavors! Happy New Year, you two! Let's get together for a bowl of posole or something soon!
Chilebrown: No thanks. That stuff actually does expire. I know from experience (bleh! bleh! bleh!).
Happy New Year to you and Ms. Goofy from the Crankycrumbs! I wonder what our next adventure together will be.
Zoomie: It's been at least 10 years since I last sampled Spam. This was a nice, fresh can, and it tasted pretty good.
Yes! Posole! Date! Yes!
I don’t like Spam, heheheheehe .
I'm sorry but that combo is heretical! You have lost any Southern creed that you might have had. You might as well eat Kudzu and call it greens. Humph!
Oh, I've had weird cravings for spam, too, and figure musubi is the safe choice. That spam musubi on Tastespotting got me, too. Maybe it's all subliminal.
Extra points for presentation!Happy new year.
You're forgetting that the pic on cakespotting was actually a trompe-l'oeil cupkake frosted to look like spam and rice.
When is the ribeye cap post?
Morgan: Thank you for the link. I haven't watched that skit in ages. spamspamspamspam
Before the Pythons came to American TV, we had to listen to their routines on vinyl LPs! (I was born in the, oh, mm, let's say "Pleistocene.")
Nancy: Let's call it a tribute to Obama, and all's hunky dory! I bet he eats that stuff.
Heather: You think it's a conspiracy by the Hormel people? Scary.
Greg: Thanks! Well, I do have a collection of some pretty cute dishes.
HNY to you and April.
Peter: Did you see the spaghetti cake on CakeWrecks?!?! Urp.
(Cap roast is in the freezer for now; we're still actually trying to use up turkey from T-giving.)
oh boy. i thought i had left spam delicacies far behind me in Makaha! Never had i seen, let alone even thought they would make a spam burger at Burger King and shock horror when i went to the sushi bar...i thought it was just polynesian taste buds gon awry...havent touched spam since school camp in 1979.
The Korean nori also has a splash of sesame oil that gives it a nice taste! For sushi rice, use a combination of rice wine vinegar and mirin (sweet rice wine)... and I'm sure it was good just as it was!
Kel: Makaha? Wow. I lived at Barbers Point for a couple of years when I was a tiny tyke. (Navy, yes.)
Spam was not allowed in the house. ;-)
Anna: I'm new to this recipe, but apparently purists don't even season the rice at all for musubi. I left out the mirin because I fried the Spam in sugar and shoyu... eek.
Korean nori = I heart.
Damn that spam looks great! Happy New Year!
Kissimmee???? Are you in Florida?
Anyhoo, fried pork chops, black eyed peas with rice and collards made its way to the dinner table at my house. How, I haven't a clue as my hang over was epic.
I thought pork was prosperity, black eyed peas were luck, and collards were wealth? I'm so confused.....
I haven't had spam since I was 12 years old and at summer camp. The counselors made us eat it.
If I recall correctly, they sliced it up, fried it, and served it on buns with mayo, lettuce, and tomato. An "S.L.T" of sorts.
I think I may have hated it. But them I was a snotty 12 year old.
I'm tempted to give it another go.
Way to get creative with the new years grub. happy '09!
Clever, I would never think to use a spam can as a way to present rice. I totally just buy spam just to do that...
Lannae: It was pretty great. I have to brag here, I know the heir of the Hormel dynasty. He HATES Spam jokes.
Sherpas: Ah, no, I'm in California, not Florida (though I've been to Florida for various reasons, including extreme rendition).
So, linguistically speaking, prosperity = wealth, and fortune = luck, but fortune also = wealth. I'm as confused as you are, and I'm sure I got it wrong.
Brittany: That is torture at the Abu Ghraib level. No one should be made to eat a Spamwich.
MC: Yep, it's a little food mold! You might want to oil the insides a bit. (My rice was very sticky.)
I'm sure you must be right about the rice as it's Hawaiian after all not really Japanese. And Japanese musubi doesn't use vinegar/rice wine either that I recall. (They just don't put spam on it in a sushi-looking way to make my brain cross things up!)
Anna: I know. Spam "sushi"? The mind boggles. And because of the size of the Spam slice, it's disarmingly big.
Thanks for all your input; I'm learning.
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