Musubi

A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine had a birthday at the beach, so I volunteered to make something for her and everyone there to eat. I made musubi.

For those of you who don't know, musubi is a Hawaiian food with origins from Japan that incorporates SPAM, the signature piece that makes a musubi what it is. Japan's original version is called the onigiri or also omusubi (honorific "o") and is formed into a round or soft triangular shape. The Hawaiian musubi, however, is shaped to conform to the size of a SPAM slice.

Being a fellow islander from Guam who, thanks to the U.S. military's influence during World War II, also grew up eating SPAM sometimes in the house—Mom would just panfry the slices and serve with eggs and rice, I learned to make musubi from my older sister. I had no idea how easy and fun it is to make, but it does take some prep time.

You need rice vinegar (powdered or liquid), rice (long or short) that's been rinsed a few times, SPAM, teriyaki sauce, some seaweed sheets, and a musubi press. I swore to my sister not to share her recipe, so I'll link to a foodie-approved recipe from online instead: SPAM Musubi*

*The rice press is a must!

One can make about 8 pieces of musubi from a can of SPAM. The musubi come out pretty big, so I cut each into halves and used toothpicks to help hold them together.

When I brought it to the barbecue, the birthday girl and friends were happy about them. And I got to share a little bit of fun island culture at the same time. :)

Musubi before I cut them in half

This is a great packet of rice vinegar. I use both this and the bottle of rice vinegar. It's more common to find the bottle than it is to find this powder, so just using the liquid rice vinegar is fine.

The sushi rice before being stirred up.

I used this kind and added a little avocado oil to the skillet.

I got this rice press from Uwajimaya, but I'm pretty sure Amazon or eBay would sell this.

Japan's original omusubi with small fish and seaweed garnish. This is a fancy kind, as they definitely did not look like this at the convenience stores. The ones in the convenience stores are pre-wrapped, but some people make them in advance to put in the freezer.