In honor of President Barack Obama: how to make Spam Musubi (YouTube)

This is not of me, but of someone making something that has become a Hawaiian snack food staple in the last 20 years, which has also become a favorite of Barack Obama's: Spam Musubi.

It's fairly simple:
one nori (seaweed) sheet
Spam
rice

The concept is basically this: a musubi is a Japanese rice ball and is usually contained in a bento that you eat alongside your main dish (i.e. fish, chicken, or whatever). Sometimes there's ume inside. Hawaiian-style bentos can have Spam, so someone years ago decided to combine it by playing a slice of Spam inside and boom: instant nirvana.

There are enough recipes and variations on how to make a Spam musubi, some make sushi rice to give it a certain flavor, but you can just make plain sticky rice and put it in there, maybe sprinkle some furikake, or have one of those small shoyu things that come out of the plastic fish, whatever.

If the concept of eating Spam and rice seems gross, let me ask this: do you cook/grill the Spam? That's the way we Hawaiians eat Spam, and it's good. Do you need a Spam musubi maker? When the craze for them began, most people simply used the Spam can because the size is perfect. So if you want to start out lo-fi, check the above video. If you like what you make, then you can go to your closest Asian store (usually a quality one) or search online for a musubi maker.

If you are serious about making them and need to find a few quality variations, click to this page at LunchInABox.net. This lady lived in Japan for ten years and the ways of Japanese cuisine grew on her. Check it.