I love the stuff but not raw. I am especially endeared to Spam Musubi with wasabi.

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Same here. It's pretty nasty when cold, but fry up a few slices and put them between mayo covered white bread and that's good eatin'.

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For Filipinoes (like myself) and Hawaiians, SPAM has a special cultural significance. In the Philippines, where having a refrigerator is still a luxury in some parts of the country, all meals are cooked fresh from ingredients bought that same day. Oftentimes though, people like convenience, and SPAM works well since it is canned and needs not be refrigerated. Since the days of WWII when Filipinoes fought alongside US troops against the Japanese, we've developed a liking for this salty processed meat product because it could be sliced thinly and fried to a crisp, similar to many filipino snack foods (called "pulutan" since you tend to eat them while drinking beer or liquor) including "tapa" (fried beef jerky), "dilis" (seasoned fried anchovies), or chicharrones. SPAM is so popular in Filipino cuisine that it is actually part of many breakfast options in the (suffix) "-silog" family. SPAMsilog is a breakfast of fried spam slices, garlic fried rice, and a sunny side up fried egg with a garnish of sliced tomato and sometimes pineapple chunks along with chili-garlic vinegar for dipping. Other "-silog" breakfasts include: tapsilog (tapa meat), longsilog (longonisa, a Filipino sausage), tocsilog (tocino, a sweet-salty cured meat which is fried), and bangsilog (bangus, or milkfish fillet) to name a few.

Hawaiians also love SPAM because many settlers in Hawaii are of Filipino descent, and of course those Filipinoes who settled there brought their love of SPAM and mixed it with local tastes. The "Hawaiian Plate Lunch" as it is known is comprised of two scoops of steamed white rice, a side of macaroni salad, and your meat of choice, which is either BBQed short ribs, chicken katsu, shrimp, mahi-mahi, or even SPAM slices. Other Hawaiian cuisine which incorporates SPAM is "SPAM musubi" which is basically an overgrown SPAM nigiri sushi that has a sweet sauce replacing where the wasabi would be between the SPAM slice and rice, and also SPAM saimin noodle soup.

I can understand why you may not like SPAM, but to me and several million other Asian and Pacific Islander folks, SPAM is a part of our culture.

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SPAM also inspired the MRE (meal-ready-to-eat) for soldiers!

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Out here on Guam it can be bought at McDonalds as part of a "Big Breakfast".(They also serve Portugese Sausage) My husband and kids love it. A Spam product sold out here is Hot and Spicy Spam. Chopped finely and added to a pan of fried rice is great. People all over the Pacific eat Spam - due to its introduction after WWII. Yes, most of us understand and cultural and health consequences....but sometimes it hits the spot!

PS Another local tradition is Spam and ship biscuits (crackers) during a typhoon when the power is out and the wind is howling outside. I always have a can in the pantry.

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Spam Musubi in the hizzie

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Gotta have it. Not often, mind you, but every now and then it's time to gather the fam around and watch the spectacular, Spamilicious splendor, splurching from the can. (Do I get extra credit for alliteration?)

My favorite way to eat it is finely diced in an omlette.

Also, the can makes a mighty fine cookie cutter, specifically for an old-fashioned iced molasses cookie called Sally-Anns, Aunt Sally Cookies. I try to make these at Christmas time, so I guess that means I buy at least one can of Spam every year.

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Just last weekend during a tailgate party for a show here in New Jersey we barbecued sliced Spam right on the grill. Add a little mustard and you have some tasty finger food.

Mark me down in the "Love it" category.

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love it especially as spam musubi or in goya champuru, definitely wouldn't eat it raw though.

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Fried spam with mased potatoes takes me back to the late 1940's and my grandma's kitchen at 216 West 90th Street in LA.

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Seems like everybody likes it, so far . . . I guess we don't admit it in person, though :) It's been years and years since I had it, but I have great memories of camping during autumns as a kid and having eggs and spam cooked in a frying pan over the fire. Smoky, hot, crispy, eaten in the cool morning sunlight with a big cup of cocoa--mmmmm. Cold . . .I dunno.

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I too love it. My father used to fry it up on weekends for breakfast with ketchup and eggs. I also like it cold on white bread with mustard.

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I don't particularly like SPAM, I like Prem. Is it weird to have brand loyalty in tinned luncheon meats? I have very fond memories of camping breakfast fry ups, and dipping a crunchy crisp bit of fried PREM in a runny egg yolk.

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I'll get a craving about once every five years. The rest of the time, I'm completely skeeved out by the "spamjelly" around the meat when you bang-bang-bang-skluck it out of the can.


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Bleh...with a capital B.

I don't understand it. I find the stuff quite disgusting.

My husband insisted on buying a tin when we were married because "every house has to have a tin in the cupboard" and we haven't touched it yet (3+ yrs and still going). Does anyone want a free tin?

It tops my list of the worst foods ever,

Spam
Marmite
Pot Noodle
etc...

What is it about Spam that makes people like it?

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Another vote for Spam musubi. A friend of mine from Hawaii even got me a neat little musubi press which forms the rice into just the right size and shape, so now I make it at home.
Lots of HK-style restaurants in the Bay Area serve Spam with dishes like fried rice and ramen.

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Love it! We used it get it for breakfast on weekends, with eggs and pancakes, presumably because it is cheaper than bacon. It doesn't do anything for me straight out of the can, though.

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A Minnesotan here. I haven't eaten it a lot, but I did just have a Spam burger at the State Fair and it was awesome. I may have to add it to the grocery list.

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My Mom who was a kid during the Korean war told me about times when they were certain that South Korea was going to be overtaken by the communist north. Food was scarce, and she lived off making broth from veggies and stream anchovies. When America decided to jump in and save the south from the communist regime, they brought along with them the miracle meat SPAM which she said "tasted like it was from heaven". This food is a life saver, that's the bottom line, and I think we should think back from time to time (being the snobby foodies that we are) and remember that food is first for nourishment, not recreation...
Anyhow, I personally think it tastes great in kimchi chigae (soup) or grilled over the an open fire until crispy, so I'm a loyal SPAM advocate. My wife, however, can't stand the little bits of gelatin, and is disgusted by the slosh/plop sound it makes when you shake the meat out of the tin, haha. But whenever we come home from drinking and there's leftover SPAM fried rice or Kimchi chigae, she gobbles it down in record time!

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I tried Spam once, its about the only thing I will not eat. I tried frying it, still gross. It was a texture thing I think. Http://www.aarondavidson.com

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