Spam Musubi -- The Snack That Made My Solo Weekend Complete

Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of summer. Brian's friends planned a camping trip to the coast — Cannon Beach, tents, bonfires, the whole Pacific Northwest outdoor fantasy. I said no. Not because I do not like camping (I do not like camping) but because taking a thirteen-month-old to a beach where the ocean temperature is fifty degrees and the nearest hospital is forty minutes away triggers my anxiety in ways I cannot explain to people who do not have anxiety and do not want to hear about it. Brian went without us. I stayed home with Miya and did not feel guilty about it, which is progress.

I made spam musubi — the Hawaiian-Japanese snack that is essentially an onigiri with a slice of grilled spam on top, wrapped in nori. It is not a food Fumiko would approve of. It is a food I discovered in college in Eugene, at a Hawaiian plate lunch place, and it is one of the great guilty pleasures of my culinary life. The spam is salty and crispy and the rice is warm and the nori holds it all together and I ate three of them on the couch while Miya napped and I watched a cooking show and it was the most American-Japanese moment of my week.

Without Brian, the apartment belongs to me and Miya and the rhythms of our own making. I played music — Japanese jazz, Ryo Fukui's "Scenery," the album I listen to when I cook because the piano is gentle and insistent and matches the pace of chopping vegetables. Miya danced, if you can call the wobbly knee-bend of a toddler dancing. I call it dancing. She was moving her body to music and smiling and that is dancing. Nobody needs more than that.

I wrote all weekend. Three blog posts — a backlog for the weeks when I am too tired to write fresh. One about spam musubi and the food hybrids that define Japanese-American cooking. One about farmers market strawberries, which are just arriving. One about anxiety and the kitchen, a deeper piece, the kind that takes all weekend to get right. I am learning that writing, like cooking, cannot be rushed. You simmer. You taste. You adjust. You serve when it is ready, not when you are impatient.

Brian came home Sunday night sunburned and happy and smelling like campfire and beer. He showed me photos of the sunset. I showed him three blog posts. We exchanged the evidence of our separate weekends and called it sharing. It is sharing. It is just not the same as being together.

The spam musubi I made that weekend was not an accident or an afterthought — it was a deliberate act of solo pleasure, the kind of cooking you only do when nobody else is setting the menu. I have been making this recipe since my college days in Eugene, and it still feels like a small, perfect secret every single time. If you have never tried spam musubi, this is your invitation: it is crispy, salty, warm, and held together by a strip of nori that makes the whole thing feel intentional in a way that good food always does.

Spam Musubi (Hawaiian-Japanese Appetizer)

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 8 pieces

Ingredients

• 1 can (12 oz) SPAM Classic, cut into 8 equal slices
• 3 cups cooked short-grain Japanese rice (sushi rice), still warm
• 4 sheets nori (dried seaweed), cut in half lengthwise
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon neutral oil (such as vegetable or canola)
• Furikake seasoning, to taste (optional but recommended)

Instructions

1. Make the glaze. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, mirin, and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Set aside.
2. Sear the SPAM. Heat oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add SPAM slices in a single layer and cook 2–3 minutes per side until deeply golden and crispy at the edges.
3. Glaze and caramelize. Pour the soy sauce mixture over the SPAM in the pan. Cook 1–2 minutes, turning slices once, until the glaze thickens and coats each piece. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
4. Shape the rice. Using a musubi mold or the empty SPAM can (both ends removed), press a layer of warm rice firmly into the mold until it is about 3/4 inch thick. Sprinkle furikake over the rice if using. Unmold onto a strip of nori placed flat on your work surface.
5. Assemble. Lay one glazed SPAM slice on top of the rice block. Fold the nori strip up and around both sides, sealing it underneath the rice. The warmth of the rice will help the nori adhere. Press gently to hold the shape.
6. Repeat and serve. Repeat with remaining ingredients to make 8 pieces. Serve immediately while the rice is warm and the nori is just slightly pliable. Best eaten within an hour.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 210 | Protein: 7g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 28g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 680mg