Spam Musubi

What a marvelous weekend! I had guests in and out the whole time, which I love (especially when they eat all of the carrot tahini muffins I bake for them). Danny's home now. I bought some awesome new sheets and a new vacuum. I learned how to spell "vacuum"--one c, two u's. Plus I did lots of fun activities and didn't hate them! I'm that flavor of human who contemplates cancelling all plans at the last minute because the thought of leaving my home fills me with dread on some days. Particularly when the 7 train completely BLOWS like it did this week.

Those activities? Well, I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond via BUS. I love a good bus ride, over the Queensboro Bridge, with Manhattan coming into view. It always makes me think of that scene from The Great Gatsby when they drive into Manhattan from LI. I know I'm not nearly as glamorous... I'm riding the bus, after all... but it's fun to imagine. 

I also met up with some friends for a fancy coffee and financiers. And then this afternoon I went to a cooking class! We made pea souffles, lavender mini bundt cakes, salmon Niçoise salad, and cauliflower risotto. Plus I went alone and was forced to make new friends which is always a good thing, yay!

As for this recipe, I was following a few of my favorite food bloggers (Molly from My Name is Yeh, Steph from I Am A Food Blog, Lily at Kale & Caramel, Alana of Fix Feast Flair) as they documented their recent group trip to Hawaii. Lots of tweets and Snapchats filled my feeds and in, like, 60% of them, you could spot spam musubi! Being an obsessive cured/canned meat aficionado and a deeply curious-about-Hawaiian-food person, I decided to make some of my own to see what all the fuss was about. Fuss-worthy they are, indeed.

Spam Musubi

Recipe by Hillary Reeves

Yield: 8 pieces

• 4 cups cooked sushi rice
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 package spam
• 2 sheets nori
• 4 tsp furikake

Cooking Directions

1. In a large bowl, using a rice paddle, mix rice and vinegar. Taste. If you prefer more vinegar, add in one tablespoon at a time, tasting along the way.
2. Mix together soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Slice spam into 8 pieces. Put non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Lay in spam pieces and let heat until crust begins to form. Flip pieces.
4. Pour soy sauce mixture over spam. Let reduce until a sticky sauce forms and coats spam. Turn off heat and let spam cool slightly.
5. Slice nori into four evenly-sized strips. Lay on sushi mat. Shape a handful of rice into a tight, spam-shaped form. Lay on nori and sprinkle with about a half a teaspoon of furikake. Top with spam.
6. Wrap up musubi in nori. Use a bit more of the sticky soy sauce mixture if your seaweed isn't securing in place.
7. Repeat with remaining rice and spam. Serve immediately for best textures, but you can store in the fridge to snack on later too!