Does Hawaii Spamalot?

Matthew Gray's Hawaii Food Tours feature gourmet Hawaiian dishes and a surprising island favorite: Spam. Hawaiians eat more of this canned meat product than anyone else.

Writing about Matthew Gray's Hawaii Food Tours this week had me drooling. But Matthew tells me I missed an important dish on my list of Hawaiian cuisine: Spam.

Spam? That uproarious canned meat product so beloved of hit musicals and Monty Python sketches? My dead parrot is still laughing!

But it seems that on the islands, Spam is no laughing matter. Hawaiians can't get enough of the stuff. They are the largest per-capita consumers of Spam in the world.

Annual sales figures run as high as seven million cans. That's around six cans per person per year. McDonald's even put it on their breakfast menu.

Spam first came to the islands during World War II, when fresh meat was scarce and it was a staple ration for soldiers. It quickly caught on with the public. Now Hawaiians count it among the three necessities they keep on their shelves (the others are rice and toilet paper).

Perhaps one reason Spam became so popular here is that Hawaiians cook it, whereas on the US mainland, in Britain and elsewhere around the world it's usually eaten cold as a luncheon meat. I'm told that heating Spam gives it a different taste.

Or perhaps Hawaiians are just more creative with it. They add it to soups and stews, and enjoy it as a delicacy or a fast-food snack. Chefs on the islands are always experimenting with new Spam dishes.

You can have Spam and eggs for breakfast, Spam fried rice, Spam sushi rolls (known as musubi), Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam..... well, you get the picture.

Hawaii's love affair with Spam has spawned two cookbooks and the annual Spam Jam festival at Waikiki. In 2003 Spam's maker, Hormel, even produced a special edition Hawaii can with a hula dancer on the front.

Matthew assures me that this "sacred product" is on the menu for his Hawaii Food Tours. He introduces his visitors to Spam Musubi, which is a slice of fried Spam pressed on a small block of rice and wrapped with a strip of nori (seaweed). Most of them find it quite tasty. Aloha!

To read more about Matthew Gray's Hawaii Food Tours, click here.