Sugar and spam

Hi friends, it’s been a while, a full year. Hope you’re well.

A few nights ago, I watched a Mikey Chen video on YouTube where he demonstrated how he likes to cook spam fried rice. I was intrigued by his addition of sugar. He covered his slices of spam in sugar before pan frying it, saying the more sugar the better.

I think I’m one of the few Asian kids who didn’t grow up with spam. My parents thought spam was unhealthy and terrible, and they passed on their disdain to me. It never felt like I was missing out because tinned meat sounded gross, although, strangely, tinned tuna was absolutely fine.

Now, as a cultured adult, I appreciate how much spam is beloved in countries like South Korea and The Philippines.

While I’ve had spam before, it’s always been in dishes like Korean army stew or kimbap. I’ve never really had it on its own or actively sought out to cook with it. I kept a tin of spam in my pantry for years, trying to muster the courage and creativity to cook with it. Truth be told, I was a bit terrified: what was in it? Why was it so tasty? How much salt is in one can? Am I going to disappoint my parents?

I was scared I would love it so much I wouldn’t be able to stop eating it. Spam seemed like such a versatile ingredient, especially for those nights where you can’t be bothered being healthy. And no defrosting needed! Just fry up some spam and eat it with rice. Or tuck it between two sugary slices of white bread. Sounds delicious!

I diced the spam and sprinkled on what I thought was a lot of sugar while the pan was heating up. I threw the cubes into the hot pan – no need for oil, Mikey said. The spam sizzled, and slowly turned gold brown.

The first bite made me think spam might be the physical embodiment of guilty pleasure. It is just so satisfying: salty, sweet, warm and tender. It’s excessive and ‘bad’ in all the ways, and yet, I wanted another piece.

I think if I didn’t add sugar it would have been too salty. I was already picturing making musubi and glazing the spam with a sweet sauce. I ate some of the spam with a zingy herb salad to assuage my guilt. I didn’t eat all of the spam though. It was so meaty, rich and porky, I didn’t need a lot of it to hit my savoury quota.

If you already eat and enjoy spam, I highly recommend frying yours with sugar. I actually thought I could have added more sugar. It gives the meat an addictive sweet and savoury hit and a nice colour. Maybe even try brown sugar!

If you’re after more spam content, I recommend you check out the spam ep of Jess Ho’s ‘Bad Taste’ podcast. It’s excellent and thoughtful. There’s also an ep about instant noodles, which is easily my weakness.

I actually made a TikTok video of me frying the spam with sugar. I sent a draft to my parents to look at and they liked it. My mum’s been nagging me to become a TikTok influencer, as though it’s something I can just choose to be! She showed the TikTok to one of her work friends and they were just very puzzled by why I was eating spam, which I thought was funny.

Unrelated to spam (I hope), I’ve decided to start my own Substack, probably for more long form food writing. I’ve got no posts just yet but if you are curious, feel free to subscribe. I’m hoping this is the year to build more momentum with my reviewing and writing.