Spam -- It's What's For Dinner

[Guest]

I just saw this picture:

on Yelp.  It is rice & spam wrapped in seaweed.  I haven't tried it.

[Jamie123]

Are you going to?

[estradling75]

When I first saw this thread my first thought was....  "How did it get past our filters??"    

 

Then I read the post....   and I am like...  "ewww... but not the kind of spam I thought you were talking about but still..... ewwww"

[Guest]

26 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

Are you going to?

I'm thinking about it.  I tried kim chi and chocolate (wouldn't recommend it).  I'll try spam-sushi.

[Jamie123]

1 minute ago, Carborendum said:

I'm thinking about it.  I tried kim chi and chocolate (wouldn't recommend it).  I'll try spam-sushi.

[anatess2]

It's called Spam Musubi.  My kids make these for snacks.  And coincidentally, it's what's in their school lunchbox right this minute.  We even have the spam musubi maker thingee that makes it much faster (and easier for the kiddos) to make one.  Spam Musubi is a very common dish in Hawaii.

The picture below was from New Year 2016 dinner party at my house.  Spam musubi (the thing with the rice) made slightly differently than the OP.  It has a smaller amount of spam per slice so the saltiness is not as overpowering. 

[anatess2]

P.S.

If you want to make one it is very easy if you get these tools/ingredients.  Amazon is a good place to get them.  It's a popular dish in my parties with the non-Asian folks second only to the lumpia.  It is filling and very cheap!

You need:

1.)  A rice cooker:

2.)  Rice (sushi rice is best but I make mine with Jasmine rice because my family eat Jasmine rice daily and I buy Jasmine rice in 25lb sacks).

3.)  Spam (the low-sodium one is fine but we like the original kind)

4.) Furikake (any flavor you like.  My kids like the nori komi or ebi fumi.)

5.)  Nori sheets

6.) Spam Musubi mold

7.)  Spam slicer (this is priceless... I got it as a gift from my husband - another reason he is such an awesome guy... who else could think of a gift like this?):

8.)  Knife.  My husband got me this sushi knife for a gift too... I can cut rice with this without needing to moisten the knife and the rice won't stick!

8.) frying pan or griddle

 

How to make:

Cook rice at 1:2 rice to water ratio.  1/3 cup is more than plenty to make musubi the full length of a nori sheet as shown in the picture.  With the rice cooker, it's as easy as put rice in, put water in, plug the thing to the wall socket, push the button, wait until it's done.  Lots of people wash their rice before cooking.  If you get that Rice Select rice, it's fine to not bother washing it.  If you do want to wash it, just put the rice in the rice cooker bowl cover with water and grab fistfuls of rice and squeeze to rub the rice grains together then pour out the water - repeat about 2 more times so the water is not as cloudy, then put 1:1.5 water ratio to the wet rice.

Take the spam and run it through the slicer.  Put the slices in a hot pan or griddle - no need to put oil - at med-hi setting on the stove.  Let it sit in the heat until the spam is caramelized (it will be shiny reddish-brown color, not reddish-black - that's burnt) and then flip.  Caramelize the other side, then take it out to sit on a paper towel to "degrease".

Take one full nori sheet and put it shiny side down on a clean board.  Put the spam mold on the middle just like the picture above.  Spoon rice layer on the bottom almost halfway up the mold.  Sprinkle a layer of furikake over the rice.  Put the spam slices (2 of them) on top of the rice.  Spoon more rice over the spam until the rice is bulging over the mold.  Take the mold press and push the whole rice-spam sandwich down.  Pull the mold body off while lightly pressing the mold press.  Then take a moistened knife (or a sushi knife) and run it through the bottom of the mold press to separate it from the rice.  Fold one end of the nori sheet over the rice-spam sandwich.  Fold the other end over it wrapping the sandwich like a giftwrap.  Position the whole thing so that the edges of the sheet-wrap is on the bottom.  With the moistened knife, slice right at the middle of the sandwich.  Then slice at the middle on both halves to make 4 pieces.  Then slice at the middle of each of the 4 pieces to make 8 pieces.

Serve.  You can make this before breakfast and it would still be good by dinner.

 

 

[Guest MormonGator]

 Anatess, I don't know too much about that kind of food-is that really spicy? Or is that Wasabi or something? 

[Backroads]

It's sushi. I'll give it a try.

I want a sushi knife...

[pam]

I LOVE Spam musubi.  It's one of my favorite things.  There is a restaurant on my way home from one of my jobs that sells it so I stop in there every now and then and pick some up.

[pam]

12 hours ago, Carborendum said:

I'm thinking about it.  I tried kim chi and chocolate (wouldn't recommend it).  I'll try spam-sushi.

@Carborendum  It's Spam musubi.

[anatess2]

19 hours ago, MormonGator said:

 Anatess, I don't know too much about that kind of food-is that really spicy? Or is that Wasabi or something? 

Not spicy.  Spam is on the salty side.  Spam musubi doesn't go well with wasabi - taste clashes.

[anatess2]

13 hours ago, Backroads said:

It's sushi. I'll give it a try.

I want a sushi knife...

Technically, it is sushi.  But with a difference.  It doesn't use regular sushi rice seasoning - salt/vinegar/sugar mix.  Furikake seasoning is used instead.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, anatess2 said:

Technically, it is sushi.  But with a difference.  It doesn't use regular sushi rice seasoning - salt/vinegar/sugar mix.  Furikake seasoning is used instead.

I believe he restaurant that this photo comes from actually uses sushi instead of the Furikake.  I don't see any Furikake in the picture.

[Blackmarch]

9 hours ago, Carborendum said:

I just saw this picture:

on Yelp.  It is rice & spam wrapped in seaweed.  I haven't tried it.

that looks like maybe 1 mouthful, if that.

[anatess2]

47 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

I believe he restaurant that this photo comes from actually uses sushi instead of the Furikake.  I don't see any Furikake in the picture.

Uhmm... not so sure.  Although some use traditionally seasoned sushi rice to make musubi, it's not as common as the thing tastes better with plain sushi rice seasoned with furikake.  Normally, in a musubi, the furikake is not mixed into the rice, rather, it is sandwiched in between the spam and the rice which may not show beyond the edges of the spam in a picture.  Some do mix the furikake into the rice for "decoration".

A more common variation is seasoning the spam by soaking it in mirin, soy sauce, and sugar.  This tastes really strong and the added saltiness of the soy sauce can be overpowering.

Edited May 20, 2016 by anatess2

[anatess2]

8 minutes ago, Blackmarch said:

that looks like maybe 1 mouthful, if that.

These things are surprisingly filling.  2 of these and I'm good.  4 of these and I'm stuffed.  But, it tastes so good it's hard to not eat until the buttons pop out.

[Guest]

45 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

Uhmm... not so sure.  Although some use traditionally seasoned sushi rice to make musubi, it's not as common as the thing tastes better with plain sushi rice seasoned with furikake.  Normally, in a musubi, the furikake is not mixed into the rice, rather, it is sandwiched in between the spam and the rice which may not show beyond the edges of the spam in a picture.  Some do mix the furikake into the rice for "decoration".

A more common variation is seasoning the spam by soaking it in mirin, soy sauce, and sugar.  This tastes really strong and the added saltiness of the soy sauce can be overpowering.

The rice sticks together in the standard manner that sushi would.  And I see no evidence of furikake in the photo.  A reviewer described it as "pam smeared spam" which seems to be what you were describing with the mirin, etc.

And the other thing you need to keep in mind is that this is Houston.  Half the restaurants here are fusion or Americanized or bastardized.  I once went to a restaurant that served Americanized Japanese food and marketed it as a "Korean" restaurant.  I only went there ONCE.

[NeedleinA]

Yum. It supposedly tastes better in the form of a fish stick. 

[anatess2]

5 hours ago, Carborendum said:

The rice sticks together in the standard manner that sushi would.  And I see no evidence of furikake in the photo.  A reviewer described it as "pam smeared spam" which seems to be what you were describing with the mirin, etc.

And the other thing you need to keep in mind is that this is Houston.  Half the restaurants here are fusion or Americanized or bastardized.  I once went to a restaurant that served Americanized Japanese food and marketed it as a "Korean" restaurant.  I only went there ONCE.

Japonico rice (commonly called in the US as sushi rice) is a sticky short grain rice.  This is the kind of rice used for sushi because it sticks together pretty good.  Jasmine rice (an aromatic long grain rice) is the common rice Filipinos prefer but it's not as sticky as Japonico, but will still stick if made a bit on the wet side.  In any case, sushi is rice (japonico or jasmine or any other rice) seasoned in sushi vinegar.  Without the sushi vinegar, it's just plain rice.  Make sense?  But yeah, in the US, anything that is rice with some stuff shaped like sushi is referred to as sushi.

But yeah... as you said, it's Houston!  You gotta go and taste it and tell me what's in it!  I went to this restaurant in Houston inside a grocery that I thought was middle eastern but the food I ordered tasted Asian (which is yummy!).

[anatess2]

2 hours ago, NeedleinA said:

Yum. It supposedly tastes better in the form of a fish stick. 

WHOA!  I've never seen this thing before!  I wouldn't mind trying it out!

[Guest]

1 hour ago, anatess2 said:

Japonico rice (commonly called in the US as sushi rice) is a sticky short grain rice.  This is the kind of rice used for sushi because it sticks together pretty good.  Jasmine rice (an aromatic long grain rice) is the common rice Filipinos prefer but it's not as sticky as Japonico, but will still stick if made a bit on the wet side.  In any case, sushi is rice (japonico or jasmine or any other rice) seasoned in sushi vinegar.  Without the sushi vinegar, it's just plain rice.  Make sense? 

Yes, I'm aware of what sushi is.  I looked up the place that had the photo.  I've been there before and it is WAYY overpriced for mediocre food.  So, naahh I am probably not going to try it now.  .

Edited May 21, 2016 by Guest

[anatess2]

1 minute ago, Carborendum said:

Yes, I'm aware of what sushi is.

Sorry... I misunderstood you when you said " The rice sticks together in the standard manner that sushi would." to say that it is sushi seasoned because it sticks together. 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

Sorry... I misunderstood you when you said " The rice sticks together in the standard manner that sushi would." to say that it is sushi seasoned because it sticks together. 

 Many types of rice can stick together.  But sushi has a particular pattern or manner of stickiness.  That is what I was referring to.

[anatess2]

On May 21, 2016 at 8:20 PM, Carborendum said:

 Many types of rice can stick together.  But sushi has a particular pattern or manner of stickiness.  That is what I was referring to.

Yeah.  I keep on tripping over the American usage of certain words.  You would think after 20 years of living in 2 countries I'd figure it out...