19679 Thu May 02 20:11:41 -0700 2002 33 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 66293 I'm a Journalism student in Lowell High School and am doing a feature story on Spam (the lunch meat). I would like to know what you guys think about it and which (if you guys know) restaurants sell it in their menus. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thu May 02 20:11:41 -0700 2002 0 Jennifer Lee 1 66294 Tita's Hawaiian cafe in the Castro has some spam offerings, not that I've tried them. The mahi mahi is good though. Link: http://www.sanfranciscomerchants.com/castro/titas/5.htm Thu May 02 20:17:20 -0700 2002 66293 0 Windy 1 66295 I personally have never had the guts to taste it, but if you can get to San Mateo you can try spam sushi at Kaimuki Grill. Spam sushi is sort of a Hawaiian thing, and Kaimuki Grill is run by a Japanese guy who was in Hawaii. It's on El Camino near 2nd Street in San Mateo. Thu May 02 20:20:05 -0700 2002 66293 0 chowhoundX 2 66550 What do you mean -- "haven't had the guts to try it." My husband says the same thing of Spam, yet he happily eats all sorts of sausage. I maintain there's not much different between a hot dog/sausage and Spam. Mon May 06 17:10:30 -0700 2002 66295 0 Raised on Spam 1 66296 Here's a link to an earlier discussion of spam. It's a common breakfast item on menus in Hawaii. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/286903#1540373 Thu May 02 20:25:52 -0700 2002 66293 0 Melanie Wong 1 66297 Have you virtually visited the Spam Museum? Click on the link below. Link: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/MNAUSspam.html Thu May 02 20:31:51 -0700 2002 66293 0 WLA 1 66305 Jennifer - Yes, I was raised on Spam, and probably look the part. It's a staple in the (Hawaiian) Islands. I still eat it (not the Spam Lite or the Low Sodium...c'mon, if you're going to do it, do it right!!!). There was an earlier posting that L&L Hawaiian BBQ has opened in San Pablo - I'm sure that they have Spam Musubi (Onigiri) - it's probably one of the most popular ways to eat spam. Most any Hawaiian Food restaurant (and I use that term very loosely) will serve Spam Musubi - or Spam, Eggs, and Rice for Breakfast. My parents were raised during the WWII - post WWII generation in Hii, most red meat, and red meat products were quite expensive....canned goods could survive the tropical environment. So being the next generation, I was raised on Spam, canned corned beef (never even knew what "real" corn beef was until I reached my late teens, deviled ham, and my favorite canned tuna - had to be Coral brand. To this day I crave and eat canned tuna on hot rice with a little soy sauce or fried (crispy around the edges) spam, eggs, and rice. Call it Hawaiian (dis)comfort food if you will. Thu May 02 22:13:14 -0700 2002 66293 0 KirK 2 66309 Hey, I know spam is Hawaiian comfort food but I think it's also San Francisco Chinese comfort food too. I remember having diced spam in chicken broth and macaroni on a cold day. mmmm...Then there is that fried spam (yes, crunchy around the edges) with over easy eggs with rice. Spam in macaroni salad, along with corn and peas was a picnic stable. I don't eat too much spam now because it IS very bad for you. Nitrate, nitrite, saturated fat...the parts that are not fat is mystery pork. Oh my god Kirk, yes, when I was little, I used to think corned beef hash was the canned ones from "something Kitchen"(it has to be that brand) with little pieces of potatoes in it. You fry that up and eat it with hot rice. It was the ultimate comfort food. Sorry to say, that one is really bad for you too. Oh well, we have to have our vices once in a long while. :0) Thu May 02 22:46:38 -0700 2002 66305 0 May 3 66325 I didn't know this until I went to a (Cantonese)friend's house for dinner and he prepared a winter melon soup with spam. I have never had spam before and actually thought it imparted a nice "fullness" to the soup. Of course there were lots of other ingridents in it too, but I think the spam acted a little like MSG for the soup. He was originally from Hawaii. Fri May 03 11:18:36 -0700 2002 66309 0 Wendy Lai 4 66326 Brings back memories....my friends "Popo" used spam in place of Smithfield?? (that's what she called it) Ham - I guess Chinese ham. Also great in fried rice, on top of saimin/ramen(this is as staple, no Char Siu for us in those days), sliced thin and grilled with teriyaki sauce on top of rice.... Also, growing up....I always thought real ham came in a can...I used to look forward to the special occaisions and would feel thrilled when I saw the black Hormel can....oh, us Kamaaina's have unique ties to certain foods...it's got to be Best Foods Mayonnaise, Libby Corn Beef, Del Monte Ketchup, Coral Tuna, Aloha Shoyu, blah, blah blah....this could be a whole 'nother thread. Fri May 03 11:26:11 -0700 2002 66325 0 KirkK 3 66330 "Mary Kitchen" corned beef hash is available in little individual-serving-sized cans at your better markets. I always keep a few of these gutbombs around for emergency medication in case of grease deficiency. Fri May 03 12:01:09 -0700 2002 66309 0 Shepherd B. Goode 4 66345 Yeh, that's the one. I always felt guilty admitting that I like these...it's good to know there are others! Fri May 03 14:47:01 -0700 2002 66330 0 May 3 66331 Not just an SF chinese comfort food... fried spam on top of a bowl of instant noodles is a very common breakfast item in HK cafes. The fact that both food items are probably really bad for you only lends to its deliciousness. Sometimes I really miss it. I even miss the cheap, beat-up forks, wobbly stools, and the non-functionally thin, non-absorbent paper napkins they always use in such restaurants. They serve it at Y's cafe on Geary @ 22nd, but the soup is a little on the light side. I think they might be skimping on the flavor packets :) Fri May 03 12:04:03 -0700 2002 66309 0 chibi 4 66346 Ha ha ha...chibi, that's a hilarious post! You've made my day. You must have gone to the "high class" hole in the walls in HK...they give you napkins?...One more thing...did you ever try spam in oatmeal? Thin out the oatmeal a little, put in little pieces of spam, cook for 3 to five minutes...it's just like jook, in a pinch. Fri May 03 14:51:42 -0700 2002 66331 0 May 1 66313 There's a restaurant down in LA called The Loft at Lahaina (Torrance, Cerritos and other locations). They have spam items on their menu - I think they have Spam sushi or something like that. There's another restaurant called Back Home in Lahaina down here in Southern California (Manhattan Beach and Torrance) that has Spam items, including Spam Musubi, but I don't know what that is. The link to their site is below. Good luck! Link: http://www.backhomeinlahaina.com/ Thu May 02 23:12:56 -0700 2002 66293 0 wow i'm a dog 1 66314 Jennifer, there's a Hawaiian restaurant on the corner of 32nd and Judah (north side). They serve spam. Thu May 02 23:34:34 -0700 2002 66293 0 Nate 1 66315 Monty Python sings about it. Thu May 02 23:50:36 -0700 2002 66293 0 howardS 1 66317 poorman's food. I love spam. I make the tastiest spam dishes that would make Wolfgang Puck look like a cook at McDonald's. Most people that I know swear they would rather eat dog food than spam. Interestingly, you won't believe how many people cook no better than dog food. Fri May 03 00:57:11 -0700 2002 66293 0 spamguy 2 66340 FWIW, even my dog refuses to eat Spam. Fri May 03 13:28:43 -0700 2002 66317 0 LBQT 1 66319 try the following link to the encyclopedia britannica. Link: http://www.britannica.com/magazine/article?query=italian+sculpture&id=34&smode=1d=34&smode=1 Fri May 03 01:20:58 -0700 2002 66293 0 ankimo 2 66320 The link didn't work for me. And I was curious what the esteemed scholars at the Brittanica would have to say about one of our most disrespected of food items. Fri May 03 07:19:25 -0700 2002 66319 0 Sharuf 1 66324 Jennifer - I just remembered - there's a great book on the history of food in Hawaii, that I own. It's written by Rachel Lauden a food anthropologist and is titled: The Food of Paradise - it has a section on spam. Good Luck! Fri May 03 11:18:16 -0700 2002 66293 0 KirkK 1 66327 Jennifer, Here's a link to a website that recommends Hawaiian restaurants in SF and the rest of the Bay Area. I'll bet lots of them serve at least one item that contains Spam. Link: http://pw1.netcom.com/~halkop/food.html Fri May 03 11:28:57 -0700 2002 66293 0 Nancy Berry 1 66333 So far this thread has treated West Coast Spam applications. Growing up in Ohio (A-hi-yuh) and Pennsyltucky, we ate a lot of Spam for breakfast as a side meat with hotcakes, waffles, or fried grits or mush. I learned to prefer my Spam with real or fake maple syrup, or Karo syrup. We seldom had it for anything other than hot breakfasts; cold, it was considered vile. Also, for my neighborhood, it was more a winter food than a summer one. During my four years in the military, I never saw Spam once. Fri May 03 12:10:59 -0700 2002 66293 0 Shepherd B. Goode 2 66337 My mom used to take it camping with us: I remember pan fried Spam as being pretty tasty, but then I was only 11. Fri May 03 12:55:55 -0700 2002 66333 0 Ruth Lafler 1 66348 "The American Century Cookbook" by Jean Anderson (1997 Clarkson) gives a brief history of Spam on page 107. Among the interesting facts found there are that Spam was created when Hormel found themselves with "several thousand pounds of pork shoulder." They had a contest to name the stuff, the winning entry of Spam won a $100 prize. It came from combining "spiced" and "ham." America consumes "more than 122 million cans of Spam a year." The most Spam is sold in "Hawaii, Alaska, Arkansas, Texas, and Alabama in this country; the United Kingdom and South Korea worldwide." Be sure to give an appropriate reference to Anderson's book if you use this information. Also mentioned, believe it or not, is a Spam carving contest. Here's a link to a recent winner of one of these contests. Link: http://www.crunchyfrog.com/spamcarv.html Fri May 03 15:31:50 -0700 2002 66293 0 Paul Trapani 2 66380 Every year there is a juried art show sponsored by some Yosemite group that features art work in a variety of media. My favorite all time one was a large format black and white photo of Spam which had been sculpted to look like the rock formations around Yosemite Valley including Half Dome, El Capitan and the others. It looked like a view east from the valley floor and also looked like Spam- a unique, fabulous, very well done creation. I have regreted not buying that photo. Fri May 03 19:28:06 -0700 2002 66348 0 Tom Hall 3 67036 I found one of the sculpted Spam photos I mentioned above- it's the third topic down on the link. I recall a couple others but they aren't on the website. I forgot that he tried to have a balance of food groups and also sculpted tofu, too. Link: http://home.san.rr.com/jsoenyun/food.html Tue May 14 15:23:52 -0700 2002 66380 0 Tom Hall 1 66351 A few years ago I bought an entertaining book entitled "Spam-ku" which is filled with haiku odes to the luncheon meat -- more than you could possibly imagine! I can't remember the author, etc. (I'm at work), but I found it at Amazon.com. Fri May 03 16:05:28 -0700 2002 66293 0 lonediner 1 66353 Since nothing sells a news story like a local angle, I think you should point out that the heir to the Spam fortune, Jim Hormel, lives in San Francisco. A search at sfgate.com should yield lots of stories about his struggle to get appointed as the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg and his philanthropic work, as well as his life story. When your article on Spam is finished, please post it here! Fri May 03 16:22:07 -0700 2002 66293 0 baygelldawg 1 66355 I believe they hold the current record for most spam sold/consumed in any state. I myself have experienced it in a number is dishes while traveling to the islands...even in a sushi roll. yummy.... Fri May 03 16:24:08 -0700 2002 66293 0 saminsf 1 66386 go to any filipino restaurant in daly city that serves breakfast and you'll find spam there too. fried spam over garlic fried rice and fried egg (yes, everything is fried) was a typical breakfast for me, as was the aforementioned corned beef and rice, and vienna sausage and rice (anything canned!) Fri May 03 20:03:51 -0700 2002 66293 0 Lourdes 2 66388 Could you tell us some of your favorites in Daly City for breakfast? Link: http://chowhound.safeshopper.com/23/cat23.htm?842 Fri May 03 20:07:23 -0700 2002 66386 0 Melanie Wong 3 66391 i usually always go the same place for breakfast ( i eat it for lunch and dinner too, it is served all day.) the place is called Sinugba. i posted the information several months back with a list of other good restaurants. Here is the address: 2055 Gellert Boulevard, Ste. No. 5 Daly City, California 94015 650-878-3591 And an article from Asian Week: http://www.asianweek.com/2001_08_24_01/arts_pickyeater.html Fri May 03 20:21:10 -0700 2002 66388 0 Lourdes