Monday, August 31, 2009

grilled spam and pineapple sandwich


  • spam, sliced
  • cored pineapple slices
  • fresh baby spinach
  • Dijon mustard
  • hamburger bun

Grill spam and pineapple on bbq until just slightly charred. Assemble sandwich as follows (from bottom to top); bun, spinach, pineapple, spam, mustard, bun.

The dish: Spam was born as the marketing effort to revive sales of Hormel's spiced ham. The name was the result of a contest where the lucky winner, the brother of a Hormel executive (fix anyone?), won $100 for tagging the iconic canned meat. Many years later, there is no spot on the earth that consumes more Spam than Hawaii, whose citizens each eat in excess of 15 tins per year of the edible junk mail. First introduced by soldiers during World War II, Spam quickly became a staple of the native diet. The 50th state is pretty far out there and needs to import pretty much everything, so the canned meat that travels well is an obvious choice for dinner on the island. Spam is so prevalent that Hawaiian McDonald's and Burger Kings offer it on their menus. My first introduction to Spam came when I moved into a bachelor pad apartment with regular red room reader Rebecca's (up yours Judy Bussman- don't worry, your not supposed to get it) now husband, Kevin. A group of us sat and watched reluctantly as Kevin grilled us up a snack. I'm pretty open minded, but Spam just has such a connotation to it, but damned if it wasn't delicious. This sandwich is a nod to Kevin's genius grilling and the folks that call Spam their "Hawaiian steak".

3 comments:

  1. When I saw you post this I was thinking about the "Spamburgers"! Thanks for the shoutout to old times...

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  2. Spam has got a great website!! You gotta love a food that can make fun of itself!
    --CoffeyKake

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  3. Heres my variation...

    I prefer thinner slices of spam and pineapple, just my preference...

    Try the kings hawaian rolls (or bread)lightly buttered and grilled. Grill the pineapple in a very small amount of butter also, then the spam on its own. Thats all I use, although cheese has been suggested to me.

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