Spam

spam a canned meat product that came to the fore in the Second World War, having been devised by the Hormel Company in the USA in 1937. As Rachel Laudan (1996) informs us, a competition was held for a catchy name, and the $100 prize was won by the entry ‘Spam’ indicating spiced ham. The product consisted of finely ground pork spiced with salt, sugar, and other flavourings.

Spam has retained some popularity in various parts of the world, although regarded with disfavour by those who eschew processed foods or have pretensions to gourmet status. Perhaps because such people are thin on the ground in the pacific islands, spam is highly regarded there. Writing of the situation in hawaii, Laudan observes that spam is the subject of a whole cookbook, only partially tongue-in-cheek, and that it is prepared in many ways: spam and eggs, spam and rice, spam sushi, spam musubi, spam lumpia, and spam wonton (all delicious, as is spam tempura, akin to the British invention of carefully sliced spam fried in batter). She completes the picture thus:

Locals … understandably regard Spam as thrifty and tasty, a food of childhood, a food of family meals and picnics at the beach, a food of convenience. A food of convenience, moreover, with a certain status, harking back to the time when buying something canned conveyed affluence and keeping up with the times. Even the fact that it can be carved is endearing because it makes Spam easy to shape for sushi and musubi. It is the motherhood-and-apple-pie of Hawaii, not specific to any ethnic group, and hence invoked by politicians to show just how deep their Local [the term has a special meaning when capitalized] roots go … Shudders or not, in Hawaii Spam continues to be something to be reckoned with.