Spam Musubi Is My Little Packet of Sunshiny Happiness

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The craving for Spam musubi always hits at the tail end of winter. (And, okay, plenty of other times of the year, too.) But it’s that specific point in time—when the magic of snow has worn off and my fridge is full of cabbage and turnips and I just can’t deal with another hearty vegetable braise for dinner—when the feeling becomes undeniable. It’s then that I dive into my pantry, past the packets of instant ramen and Costco bags of dried fruit, until I find it, standing stalwart against the back wall, the ingredient that is always in season and always delightful: SPAM.

Say what you will of Spam, but you cannot deny that it tastes pretty good. And it reaches peak deliciousness when it’s fried in its own mystery meat fat, slicked with soy sauce, layered with hot white rice and furikake (Japan’s savory sprinkles), and wrapped in earthy, crackly nori (Japanese dried seaweed). This, my friends, is Spam musubi, an all-occasion, all-season Hawaiian snack. And this is what I’m eating tonight.

Spam musubi is everywhere in Hawaii, where my dad grew up and much of my extended family still lives. It’s on regular rotation at any family gathering, from New Year’s fêtes to football games. My mom, who is not from Hawaii, eventually added Spam musubi to her own repertoire, making it for my elementary school class parties and any gathering in the Inamine household. When I moved to New York, she made sure I had a Spam musubi mold—not entirely necessary for making musubi, but helpful for tuning them out faster, more even, and more compact; people in Hawaii do not joke around—so I could live that Spam musubi lifestyle even thousands of miles away from the homeland. Now it’s become the antidote to my winter cooking blues, an absolute unit of carbs and calories that’s unabashedly salty and fatty and joy-filled. And here’s how it can become yours, too.

Start by cooking about 2 cups of short-grain white rice on the stove or in a rice cooker. Any short-grain rice will do, but Japanese sushi rice is the move if you have some on hand. While that’s going on, open up 1 can of Spam (I go for low-sodium Spam, but there are SO many varieties, so choose what you like). Shimmy the Spam out of the container—but don’t toss the packaging just yet. Lay the meat on its side and slice longways into 6 to 8 planks (each piece should have round edges). The number of slices depends entirely on how thick you want your Spam to be (I prefer mine thinner).