Spamming the World
by M.C. Anderson

Ask locals in the Pacific Islands about the best grub in town and it’s likely you’ll be told about Spam.

This canned meat’s popularity is a reflection of the culinary melting pot that defines much of Pacific Island cooking. In fact, the islands have long been at the world’s culinary crossroads, according to Rachel Laudan, author of The Food of Paradise. A hodgepodge of ethnicities -- Micronesians, Japanese, Chinese, Europeans -- everyone has thrown their styles into the mix over centuries.

The Micronesians first brought pork, chicken, taro and sweet potatoes; then came the Europeans with red meat and salt; Asians and Filipinos contributed rice, noodles, tofu and soy.

“Before the Europeans came, Hawaiians and other islanders lived on a diet of fruits and vegetables and fish,” says Hawaii native Toni Lee, who owns Tita’s Hale Aina, a San Francisco restaurant. “Then meat products were brought in by the Europeans.”

And part of this European and American culinary invasion included Spam.

Introduced in 1937, Spam -- the name is short for “spiced ham” -- is a mash of chopped pork shoulder and ham, served up in a vacuum-sealed can, which makes refrigeration unnecessary and contributes to a very long shelf life -- that is, indefinite. The 12-ounce cans began to colonize the world in the 1940s, including many Pacific Islands.

Although it was lampooned by the American military during World War II as “the ham that couldn’t pass the physical,” Spam went on to worldwide popularity.

The maker of Spam, Minnesota-based Hormel Foods, works overtime in trumpeting the joys of the canned meat. Its promotional materials crow that Spam produce its 5 billionth can in 1994 -- enough cans to circle the earth 12.5 times. More than 120 million cans of Spam are sold each year, and the product is trademarked in more than 100 countries, from the Solomon Islands to Grenada to Korea.

Although Hormel does not have precise statistics on exactly how much Spam is scarfed down in the Pacific Islands, anecdotes abound about its popularity.

In Guam, Spam is so popular that car dealers have been known to offer a free case of Spam with the purchase of an automobile.

In Saipan and other islands, many complain that opening up a can of Spam for a quick meal has replaced going out to the reef to catch fish.

But the prize for consumption goes, hands-down, to Hawaiians. On a per-capital basis, Hawaii is the heaviest consumer of Spam in the United States. More than 4.3 million cans are sold there each year, or about 4.3 cans per year per Hawaiian.

“Spam is our steak,” says Hawaiian native Betty Chang, who is also one of the founders of Fremont-based Polynesia Polynesia, a Cultural Heritage Society. “Go to a grocery store, you’ll always see a lot of Hawaiian people stocking up on Spam. Japanese, Chinese, native Hawaiian, it doesn’t matter -- we were raised on Spam.”

Spam fits well into the fusion food so typical of Pacific Island cooking. In Hawaii, where this kind of cooking is called “local food,” in which Spam is diced and cooked with head cabbage. Spam is also sliced thin and cooked with onion, garlic and soy sauce. Spam is baked with pineapple and cloves. Spam with eggs and rice is breakfast.

“Spam is so easy, you just open up a can,” Chang says. “Wherever you see Hawaiians, you will see Spam.”

Toni Lee treasures Spam as the ultimate comfort food. To this Hawaiian expatriate, Spam is the essence of home. “Spam is a comfort food for me,” he says. “Sometimes when I’m depressed, I eat Spam and rice. It brings back memories of home. Spam, it’s part of me.”

M.C. Anderson is taking a break from Food Thoughts after this issue.