Sorry Ricky, just the idea of spam makes me gag. Had to eat it occasionally as a child, never happening again. Of course I never liked bologna either, fried or otherwise.

I watched the commercial and the only thought that comes to mind is why would anyone make fried rice with spam?

Okay, I'll freely admit it. My absolute favorite sammich growing up was pan-friend Spam on toasted rye bread with tomato and mayo. I haven't had Spam in probably 35 years, but I'd buy a small can and make that sammich in a heartbeat.

As a kid, I loved cubed spam in scrambled eggs, just as long as it wasn't browned. Had to be heated, then eggs added, but if it was allowed to caramelize at all, I didn't like it. Now, I'd probably have a salt stroke from eating it if I tried!

The summer prior to my junior year, I got a very good job. Spent a good chunk of it on clothes and had none left for a semester meal plan. Could not admit to Mom I had blown my $ on clothes. I had to make do with my part-time school job and that meant Kraft mac&cheese ($0.27/box) & broiled bologna sandwiches. These days, I can’t eat either, ha

once on a trip to Germany, we ordered roast pork at a restaurant. We got spam or something like it. It was absolutely gross, to this day don’t know what got lost in translation on that one. But oddly, I have two cans of Spam in my “Armageddon emergency stash.”

I wouldn't want to eat it all the time, but for me it's one of those things I like about once a year. Gjetost is another.

Gosh darn it, ann_t, now I want fried bologna. Haven't had that in at least 30 years.

(I didn't watch the ad...)

If you don't like spam, then hope you never find yourself in Hawaii looking for the local specialties.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/Menuism/why-do-hawaiians-love-spam-so-much_b_1901306.html

I might eat those fried Spam cubes if they left out the peas and carrots and whatever that sauce is - soy sauce? Thinking I might prefer potatoes and onions, like w/ hash.

Mmmm fried bologna - w/ mayo on toast!

Spam, not so much = P

Hubby's guilty pleasure is those little cans of Vienna sausages, and Spam comes in 2nd. He eats both straight out of the can - blecchhh!

Amazing, I was talking about Spam just last week. A friend went to Hawaii and didn't know about Spam or that it is a favorite over there. I had asked my Hubby about a year ago if he had ever eaten it and he hadn't. Having eaten it a lot as a kid I decided to get a can to see if my tastes had changed. I sliced it and fried it crisp just like Mom did. I was expecting to hate it but it really wasn't that bad. But then I happen to love fried baloney sandwiches, so go figure.

The texture of raw spam... ugh... I mean, the taste is okay, but I'd rather have ham. Or bologna.

Sorry Ricky, but no. Just no. It's just too.......gelatinous, or something, and I'm not sure it's even meat, it's salt and some undefinable gelatinous goo.

That said, Ashley loves the stuff, and one of her favorite sandwiches was fried bologna with Miracle Whip on white bread. None for me, thanks. (grin)

Of course, she also had a stroke at age 27, so it could have been the Spam, the fried bologna and the habit of eating Cream of Mushroom soup directly out of that red and white can. I think she doesn't eat any of those things anymore. I think....

Annie

I do like Spam, but I almost never eat it, unless I go to the local Hawaiian restaurant for breakfast/brunch. I did buy some turkey spam as earthquake emergency food, but we haven't had an emergency since I bought it. I always omit any other salt in a recipe if I use it, however. I've made fried rice with spam and used no salt on the rice.

I do like the Monty Python Spam sketch quite a bit:

Loved that ad! I'd like spam fried rice, too. Haven't had spam in years. In Hawaii there are many different flavors of spam. Spam musubi!

I quite like fried bologna but I decided the last time I tried Spam that I’ve reached my lifetime quota.

Oh dear, writersblock, I tried gjetost once and that was once too often.

We had Spam when i was a kid, because it didn't take any or many ration points....awful! One time my mother cooked it like ham, studded with cloves and covered in pineapple....and it was still spam.
As for balogna....there are different kinds....that pink sandwich meat...EWW! But coarse ground Dutch baloney is a different thing!

Did you know that there is a Spam museum? It's in Minnesota!

Martha, I knew that! When Dad was still alive, I drove him and my stepmother, Ashley and a friend of hers to Wyoming for one of Dad's last Air Force reunions. We went north, across the UP and into Wisconsin, over to Minnesota. We saw signs for the Spam museum and I was lobbying for a visit but was unanimously voted down.

Everyone should take a 10 day road trip with two 16 year old girls and two 70+ parents. Yeah. A stop at the Spam Museum would have been a good break. This was in 2004, before iPhones and such, so we were entertained by Ashley and Jessica discussing what Spam was really made of.

There are, apparently, a dozen or so flavors of Spam, including Hot & Spicy. I've never seen anything except Spam flavored Spam, though.

Annie

There are also Spam cooking contests, but the prizes are really cheap.

As a kid, we didn't have waffles without thin sliced of crispy fried spam - my folks were frugal when younger! I loved it. Yes, it's gross in the can, and uncooked. I once made baked spam... ew. Not good. But I do have a spam and Monterrey/Parmesan cheese pie that I make, and even though DH detests spam... he loves that meat pie (yeah, I know, sounds gross). We only have it a couple times a year, but it doesn't look like spam, nor does it taste much like spam. And yes, I still like fried spam, but don't make it that often.

I guess it's an acquired taste - and considered disgusting due to the fact it's processed meat, and cheap!

Found a pic that resembles my spam and cheese pie!

3575931.jpg (560×315) · More Info

Very early in our marriage, we had a party. I was clueless about appetizers except for chips and dip. So I made little canapes by skewering cubed spam (not cooked), pineapple, cheddar cheese and olives on toothpicks. I was so surprised they didn't get eaten. LOL!

Like it or not, Spam is very popular. How many Spam flavors have you tried? :-)

As listed on the official Spam website, there are numerous different flavors of Spam products, including:

1. Spam Classic – original flavor
2. Spam Hot & Spicy – with Tabasco flavor
3. Jalapeño Spam
4. Spam with Black Pepper
5. Spam Low Sodium – "25% less sodium"
6. Spam Lite – "33% fewer calories, 25% less sodium, and 50% less fat" – made from pork with ham, and mechanically separated chicken
7. Spam Oven Roasted Turkey
8. Spam Hickory Smoked
9. Spam Spread – "if you're a spreader, not a slicer ... just like Spam Classic, but in a spreadable form"
10. Spam Bacon
11. Spam Cheese
12. Spam Garlic
13. Spam Teriyaki
14. Spam Chorizo
15. Spam Boricua – seasoned Puerto Rican-style flavor
16. Spam Macadamia Nuts – Partnered with Hamakua Plantation
17. Spam Turkey
18. Spam Tocino
19. Spam Portuguese Sausage
20. In addition to the variety of flavors, Spam is sold in tins smaller than the twelve-ounce standard size. Spam Singles are also available, which are single sandwich-sized slices of Spam Classic or Lite, sealed in retort pouches.

dcarch

Once in a while I see Spam and think about trying it. I’ve been thinking about it for years. But I can never bring myself to buy it. Maybe next time I see it I’ll bite the bullet and give it a go.

FOAS, Why? What possible reason could you have for wanting to try canned mystery meat? Read the label and Annie's description.

"Spam's basic ingredients are pork, with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, sugar, and sodium nitrite as a preservative. Natural gelatin is formed during cooking in its tins on the production line.[4] Many have raised concerns over Spam's nutritional attributes, in large part due to its high content of fat, sodium, and preservatives.[citation needed]"

Pick up some cheez wiz and have some chemical soup with your 'salt lick'.

It really isn't that funny....all the medical issues that are directly related to bad eating habits.

I agree sleevendog, but when I think of how many times in my distant past I've probably overheated teflon, eaten 'all kinds of crud' that I know was bad for me, or possibly dangerous (think carnival food, any carnival food!), bad air quality (we could barely see outside our house due to forest fire smoke last year - that lasted a month), drunk tap water that I later found was contaminated, drank too many dark colas over a period of years, overindulged on chips, and... the list goes on. I'd rather indulge in a good high-fat steak, enjoy bread, eat pepperoni pizza, munch on popcorn, indulge in butter... and live a little, or a lot. I believe in a well-balanced meal, but I balance that with foods we like and aren't very good for us. I find I can't live a food-restricted lifestyle. I admire those who do, but I wouldn't trade shoes, even if it meant a few more years.

One can't avoid additives, natural or unnatural: There is the ick factor too... in cereals there are quite a few bug bits (I love raisin bran, but I stopped eating it for a few years after using a magnifying glass on it and seeing bug wings - I eat it on occasion now), I use stone ground cornmeal, and that's 'allowed' rodent hair and bug bits, there are parasites allowed in fish, worms on produce, ... I honestly think there is no way around not eating something that's not bad for you or has some sort of 'ick factor' unless one is lucky enough to be entirely self-sustaining.

Although for the most part I think "What I don't know won't hurt me", I must say that after reading this ......

"but I stopped eating it for a few years after using a magnifying glass on it and seeing bug wings "

It does make me glad I have never eaten cereal. Although the reason I don't eat cereal has more to do with the fact that I have always hated milk rather than bug wings.

And as I have confessed here before, occasionally I will actually eat a smear of Cheese Whiz on toast, finished under the broiler. :)

I haven't eaten it much as an adult, but we liked it grilled in sandwiches or as a breakfast meat as kids on occasion.

For what it's worth, the insect 'bits' in foods the FDA allows is often protein, therefore adding some nutrition ; - ) I'd be more concerned with overheating teflon...or just avoid teflon coatings altogether, among other things.

Sorry to gross anyone out, but when I was very young I remember finding an entire cricket leg in a can of beanie weenies (gawd I hope it was a cricket leg). I sent it off to the manufacturer neatly taped to a recipe card, and asked if this was acceptable. The answer I got back was "yes", and they sent me a coupon for another can! Put me off that for a few years! But... protein ; - /

Yes, all processed food, including canned and frozen, are allowed a percentage of "particulate matter". That can be anything from bugs to twigs to fingernails, rodent hair, the FDA calls it "objectionable matter contributed by insects, rodents, and birds; decomposed material; and miscellaneous matter such as sand, soil, glass, rust, or other foreign substances."

Yes, that means everything from mouse poop to bugs is OK, and it's in all our food, if it's processed. It's on the raw stuff too, but at least we can wash that and get rid of "objectionable matter".

I produce as much of my food as possible, but it's because I'm more concerned about the chemical pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc. Those things are meant to kill things and they sure aren't good for us.

I think that Spam actually hits all those categories. It's unhealthy because of the ingredients, has the same "objectionable matter" that all processed food has, AND is loaded with chemicals. A perfect storm of everything that's bad for us, if they just added a ton of sugar or high fructose corn syrup!

Annie

I don't avoid Spam because of additives nor bugs etc....but simply because it's nasty, salty, greasy, mushy....etc.

I like it once in a while. Son in law would eat it every day.

Sue

Spam, poor men's pâté de foiegras.

dcarch

"Spam, poor men's pâté de foiegras."

Not anyone who has ever had Foie gras would consider Spam a substitute.

My dad forbid my mother from having it in the house. He said
he ate enough of it in the navy to last a lifetime. I honestly don’t think I have
ever tasted it. I do have a few cans in our emergency earthquake end of the
world stash but DH said we would only eat it after we go through all the raccoons
that live out by the creek.

"Not anyone who has ever had Foie gras would consider Spam a substitute."

Ann, meet my husband, the fried spam lover. : ) I have to make up names for things so he'll eat good, and healthy cooking! He once said he'd never eat mirepoix! LOL! The man comes running from miles when he smells it and he's no idea it's just the beginning of a dish! He thinks I've oil-fried the oven baked fries (I don't tell him otherwise, and he never pays attention to me cooking). Mention cod? He scowls! "I've never eaten cod." ...oh, but he has!

I think some of the foods that are so bad for us, that we still love, come from happy, loving memories.

Googled:

"Spam Musubi is a Hawaii classic — even President Obama loves it. And sometimes, all you gotta do is add truffle oil to take it to the next level."

"On Sunday a New York Times pool reporter disclosed that Barack Obama ordered “spam musubi” for lunch during a golf outing in Hawaii."

Fake meat and fake truffle pair so perfectly :-).

dcarch

Well, I suppose working up a decent sweat if it's hot outside, and washing it down with a cold beer - yeah, that's do-able.

Spam is just pork. Instead of making sausage out of the weird parts, it gets thrown in with trimmings and canned. There's a high proportion of pig's ears in it; hence the gelatin. The problem I have with it is that like most traditional canned foods, it is way too high in salt.

We eat out a lot, and most cooks are much younger. Many of them salt food like there's no tomorrow. I always think, "Just wait till you turn 40 and your doctor sticks you on HCTZ." LOL!

I always chuckle when I think of an old Spam radio commercial. Must have been in the early 1970's when I was still in Chicago. An interviewer did a "man on the street" series where he'd ask people what Spam was made of, and then he'd hand them a can to read the label contents.

One guy when asked what Spam was made of, was really flummoxed as he'd never eaten the stuff. He said, "Ummm....I dunno, never thought about it."

After he read the label (aloud), he said, "Wow, I had no idea it was just pork. I guess I thought it came from something weird - a Spaminal, or something!"

Made me laugh every time I heard that one play. Bring on the Spaminals!