Spam Musubi

I have been on a Spam Musubi kick lately. (Spam, spam, spam, spam, wonderful Spam!) And with any kick comes with more research on the subject. What I found interesting was Wikipedia's description of Spam musubi as having salted rice. Of all the recipes, blogs, and websites that I've read, none of them spoke about salting the rice to make it musubi rice (vs. sushi rice). But the description of musubi in Wikipedia is an "unseasoned" block of rice. Huh...just goes to show you that anything on Wikipedia has to be taken with a grain of salt. Speaking of salt, it would be interesting to know where the person who wrote about Spam musubi got the salt reference.

Speaking of Spam, even the DSC show on KGB had a recent segment where Cookie and Boyer cooked up some Spam and Eggs for Dave because he never had it before. You can see a slide show of the beautiful breakfast that Cookie whipped up.

When the Mister travels, I'm always looking for simple dishes to whip up for myself. So it's not surprising that I've resorted to Spam musubi as my staple this week. I've been known to get so lazy at times that I'll resort to eating a whole can of garbanzo beans just so I don't have to cook. I was even too lazy to whip up a batch of hummus. Now that's lazy. But I did make some penne pasta with asparagus and anchovies on Sunday that will last the entire week. But I can't have the same dish for lunch and dinner 5 nights in a row. So Spam musubi will be the filler. Ahhh, Spam musubi.

I recall having Spam as a kid but it was not a favorite of mine. Mom would cook it up with some eggs. Again, eggs weren't a favorite of mine as a kid. We never had Spam musubi because, well...apparently Spam musubi wasn't introduced until the 1980's. By then, we had already moved to the mainland.

I finally tried my first Spam musubi not too long ago all because of a wrong order. I was starving and feeling a little adventurous, I ordered a Spam musubi at a local plate lunch eatery. Actually, I ordered a Portuguese sausage musubi but the lady taking the order got it wrong. I didn't correct her and thought, what the hey. I'll try Spam. Goes to show you how hungry I was. And there it was. This beautiful brick of rice, with a slice of fried Spam snuggling up to it, all tucked in with a strip of nori blanket. My first bite, a bit of saltiness of the Spam followed by a taste of sweetness, almost teriyaki-like in flavor and the sweetness of the sticky rice. It was delicious. I couldn't believe I enjoyed it so, even with the tough nori, it was delicious. Heck, even the Mister liked it. I knew then that I would have to add Spam musubi to my recipe collection.

There are plenty of Spam musubi recipes on the Internet and they are all pretty close. Some add a type of sauce, usually sweet, others keep it plain, and some will even add furikake. I like mine with a simple teriyaki sauce. It's made with 1/4 cup Aloha Shoyu, 1/4 cup sugar (brown if you prefer), and 1/8 cup part Mirin, reduced down to a slightly thick consistency. Some recipes call for equal parts of Mirin but that's a little too much for me. But give the different sauces a try and see which you like best.

I had a leftover Spam musubi for breakfast this morning (with a side of oatmeal, need something to battle that artery clogging fat). I nuked it in the microwave for about 45 seconds and it brought the rice back from spending a night in the fridge. The nori, however, didn't fair well, as expected. It was soggy and fell apart upon picking up the brick. But it was pretty darn good for a leftover. Of course now I'm going into the musubi coma (is it too early in the morning to get a kanak attack?) but then again, it could also be because of the stupid daylight savings time. I better go get another cup of caffeine before the boss catches me asleep at my desk.