Spam Macaroni Salad -- The Cold Dish We Made Together on the First Hot Day

June. Summer begins and the Dashi newsletter is three months old with five thousand subscribers. The growth is the shiso growth — persistent, organic, fragrant, filling the space. Each issue reaches more people. Each issue generates replies. Each reply is a hand reaching back through the inbox. The hands are: women in their thirties who read at three AM, men in their fifties who miss their grandmothers, teenagers who cook with anxiety, retired teachers who make miso soup for the first time. The hands are everyone. The Dashi reaches everyone.

I made somen for the first hot day — the cold noodles, the dipping sauce, the summer surrender. Miya helped, but "helped" is the wrong word now — Miya cooked. She made the somen while I sat at the table and wrote the newsletter. The sitting-while-she-cooked is the new domestic arrangement: she cooks, I write, we eat together. The arrangement is the inheritance redistributed, the labor shared differently, the kitchen belonging to both of us in a way that does not require one of us to stand and the other to sit but allows the alternation, the turn-taking, the collaborative ownership.

The shiso on the balcony is at its early-summer abundance, the leaves proliferating, the herb anticipating the peak that will come in August. I harvest daily for the blog recipes and the newsletter essays and the cooking classes and the neighbors and Lin and Rachel and the giving is the abundance and the abundance is the shiso and the shiso is the connection to Fumiko that does not require words or bowls or recipe cards — just the smell, the smell that stops me every time I brush past it, the smell of Fumiko's apartment, the smell of being loved in a language that does not require words.

There’s no somen recipe in my card box this summer —because Miya made it, and it belongs to her now. But the spirit of that first hot-day meal—cold noodles, a simple sauce, the relief of something chilled and shared—lives in this Spam Macaroni Salad, which carries the same logic: cook it ahead, let it chill, and eat it together without ceremony. It was the dish I reached for on the evenings I wasn’t standing at the stove, the cold bowl on the table that asked nothing of us except that we sit down and eat. The shiso from the balcony goes on top —just a few leaves, just the smell, just enough.

Spam Macaroni Salad

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 1 hr 25 min (includes chilling) | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 2 cups elbow macaroni
• 1 (12 oz) can Spam, cut into small dice
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for pasta water
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 1/2 cup celery, finely diced
• 1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
• 2 tablespoons sweet relish
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Instructions

1. Cook the macaroni. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook elbow macaroni according to package directions until just past al dente, about 8–9 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water until fully cooled. Shake off excess water and set aside.
2. Sear the Spam. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the diced Spam in a single layer and cook, undisturbed, for 2–3 minutes until the edges are golden and slightly crisp. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
3. Make the dressing. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt, black pepper, Dijon mustard, and sweet relish until smooth and well combined.
4. Combine. Add the cooled macaroni, cooled Spam, peas, celery, and red onion to the bowl with the dressing. Fold everything together gently until evenly coated.
5. Chill. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving, or up to overnight. The macaroni will absorb some of the dressing as it sits —stir before serving and add a spoonful of extra mayonnaise if needed to loosen.
6. Serve. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve cold, directly from the bowl.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 340 | Protein: 10g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 34g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 680mg