How much spam does hawaii eat a year

Hawaiians like Spam so much, they consume an estimated 5 million pounds of it a year. Per capita, they consume more than anyone else in the U. That works out to about six cans a year for every man, woman and child, which is just a little eyebrow-raising, given the sodium and fat content of that can. A oz. Does anyone eat only one serving? But you have to admit, Spam is tasty. Musubi is sold everywhere on the island, from gas stations to fine dining establishments.

The family-friendly Spam Jam attracted about 25, people last year. It features local musicians, crafts and special Spam dishes by local and national chain restaurants. And dessert, too: Ono Pops is making peanut butter cream pops with bits of candied Spam inside. But the story goes deeper. Donald M. Shugg of the University of Hawaii explains it this way in his paper on the fishing industry in the Hawaiian Journal of History :. In , suspicions about the loyalty of Japanese immigrants resulted in implementation of a federal statute that prohibited fishing vessels of five tons or more from obtaining licenses unless the vessel owner was a U.

The next year, the Territory passed a law prohibiting aliens from fishing with hukilau, gill, or purse seine nets within one mile of shore in order to preserve fishery resources for native Hawaiians and other U. Spam also helped feed the starving populations in various Asian Pacific nations devastated by that war, and it has remained immensely popular.

To this day, Spam is a well-known addition to many modern Korean and Filipino dishes. For its part, Hormel fully embraces the kitsch, hawking mugs and mouse pads and sharing recipes for Spam chile rellenos and a Hello Kitty Spam musubi creation on its website.

This week, it also launched a SPAMerica tour on a big yellow bus to tout its virtues to American cities all over the country. It's a really interesting dichotomy of saying, "Hawaii's local food. So that, we can call it local. It's looked like different things in the last, I would say, over the course of my lifetime.

When I was a baby, the places to go were places that focused on using Pacific influences with French techniques, and there wasn't, when I was a really little kid, such an emphasis on local ingredients. Maybe on some things, certain fish and certain vegetables. But there wasn't really a very holistic way of looking at Hawaii's resources because we imported and we still import the vast majority of our food from the mainland, which is ridiculous.

It's so expensive. Even now, most of Hawaii's milk comes from the mainland. Most of Hawaii's food does come from the mainland. There's that. It's very hard to condense into just a few sentences. We have in Hawaii this impulse to make other peoples' food our own. You have to remember that, and the way that I approach Hawaii's local food, and Hawaii's food, and my own food, is that it's not a static thing.

It's something that's constantly innovative and interesting, and yes, we have the classics, yes, we have Kalua pig and Spam musubi. These have been classics for quite a long time now. But that doesn't mean that you can't tweak them a little bit, or add your own flair. Because what I find so exciting about Hawaii's food is people encountering it for the first time are like, "OK, Hawaiian food is this.

Hawaii's local food is this, these few categories. I think what a lot of outsiders don't realize about Hawaii is that we love bringing food from one place to another. Bearing food great distances, or even small distances, and sharing food is like such a part of Hawaii's food culture.

In Hawaii, a lot of our food culture is influenced by Japanese food culture, but also by Japanese culture in general. Omiyage is something that you bring home to people from your travels. You always have to show up with a gift, and you always have to think of others when you're traveling and bring something back. Usually, it's food. With this tradition of Omiyage, you are constantly bringing new food to people. When you bring new food and new flavors to people, they're going to want to incorporate it into what they already know and enjoy and eat.

Hawaii's food is constantly evolving, it's constantly changing, and I feel like it's this big, warm hug that keeps bringing in new flavors and influences. I want to reiterate: Hawaii's food is not static. To learn more about Kiki's other passions and inventive crochet projects, listen to the full interview on the Communal Table podcast. To find out more about the apparent role of Spam in the upcoming administration, contact your Congressperson though perhaps wait a bit—they're kinda busy.

To get down with some Spam recipes at home, crack open a can and get cooking. Kat Kinsman. By Kat Kinsman January 11, Save FB Tweet More. Cans of Spam. But first, from the Spam website's FAQ :. All rights reserved. Close Sign in. The day-long celebration features around twenty restaurants, all with their own inventive Spam recipes — from Spam nachos to Spam crab cakes.

Luckily, Spam lovers can mark their calendars for Oct. IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Share this —. Follow today. More Brands. By Elyse Pham. Spam turns 75 July 11, Ashley Holt.