The Hawaiians Are Here!

My excellent niece and nephew, Kelsi and Mason, are staying with us for a few days. They have spent their spring break visiting their Dad in Kamloops and experienced a bit of culture shock (which is surprising seeing how the logging redneck interior of British Columbia is so similar to the locals-only vibe of Waimanalo... insert sarcasm here).

So when they arrived I whipped them up a quick snack of Spam Musubi. For those of you not in the know, Spam Musubi is the snack that truly fuels the aloha spirit. And quite frankly, if you are going to eat Spam, (like if someone puts a gun to your head), you should definitely choose to enjoy your mystery meat in this fabulous pan-pacific-asian cross-cultural dish.
Ingredients

• 2-3 sheets nori
  
• 2 cups rice
• 2 cups water
• 1 can spam
  
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
  
• 1/4 cup oyster sauce
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Mason, the Spam / Aloha Ambassador

Cooking Directions

1. Cook the rice, using equal parts rice and water. I use a rice cooker, but you can also cook it on the stove if you don't have a rice cooker.
2. Mix the soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar in a bowl until the sugar is completely dissolved.
3. Cut the spam into 8 equal pieces, horizontally (like you are slicing the top off each time). Keep the can!
4. Place the spam slices in the sauce mix, marinate for as long as possible. I did about and hour.
   
5. Put the oil in a frying pan, heat over medium heat.
6. Fry the marinated spam until brown, about 2 minutes on each side.
7. Cut the nori into strips about 2.5 inches wide.
8. Wash the can that the spam was in very well and lightly oil the can
   
9. Fill the can with about an inch and a half of loosely packed rice, then squish it down very tightly. I even used my espresso tamper for extra packability. To get the rice out of the can, I slammed the can upside down on the cutting board until the rice came out. You might also try to line the can with plastic wrap before you pack the rice, so it’s easy to pull it out.
10. Place the rice on one end of the nori, so that they are perpendicular.
11. Place a slice of spam on the rice.
12. Wrap the nori around the spam/rice stack. Hold closed for a few seconds, it should stick. If it doesn’t stay closed, use a drop of water to close it.

Aloha, dude.