This is one of the more notorious specialties of Hawai’i, but I’ll tell ya, these little buggers are awfully tasty. And handy, too — when you can nip into any convenience mart and snag a portable block of tasty handheld carbs+protein+fat, for less than 2 bucks, and be back on your way to the beach, there ain’t nothin’ not to like about that.
I think every single spam musubi we bought on the islands was different than the others, which is hilarious. Some have teriyaki sauce, some have panko crumbs, some have egg, some have furikake, some are plain. Sometimes they’re in the hot case, sometimes out at room temp (rarely in the fridge, these people are respectful of their rice).
But my most favorite of all of them was the first, the hot-case teriyaki-brushed spam musubi clearly handmade by someone at the Kukui’ula Market on Kaua’i, between Kahoa & Poipu. They were the most flavorful, thanks to the play between sweet-savory teri sauce and salty-savory spam, and the rice was warm and soft and held together just right. The nori got a little chewy, but i can overlook such a flaw. Once we found these, i think we ate at least one every day the rest of the time we were on Kaua’i.
(more musubi photos to come)