First time at Kitchen Cow? Visit the Reader's Favorites List for a rundown of everyone's favorite bento posts or let me pick a post for you.
Spam! Spam! Spam!
They say happiness can’t be bought, but for me, happiness can come from a can. In this case, from a can of Black Pepper SPAM. A much maligned processed canned food product, SPAM is the definitive mystery meat. I mean, where else can you find meat that comes in blocks? But its mysterious nature notwithstanding, SPAM still brings me happiness, when it’s fried to a light crisp then served with rice.
Bringing that same happiness to my lunchbox are these little flower-shaped Black Pepper SPAM on rice. To make, I sliced the SPAM, cut with my vegetable cutters then lightly pan-fried both the flower-shapes and the slices I cut them out from. To avoid wasting anything, I simply hid the slices with holes under the rice.
To contrast against the SPAM, I also packed some cucumber slices (flower-shaped again), a bit of vinaigrette for the cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and weirdly enough, century egg wedges and spring onion stalks for the egg. Not quite a combination you’d think of but I wanted to eat century eggs that day. That’s the nice thing about being a grown-up. You can eat what you want, whenever you want. Unless the doctor says you can’t.
From our Tip Jar
Wondering what to do with leftovers from using veggie cutters? Don’t throw them away. Chop them into even-sized pieces for quick additions to sautéed dishes or fried rice. Or, you can still include them in your bento, just hide them under the other food.
|
|
|
Mmm~ It all looks so yummy! And I agree that SPAM is best fried. ^_^ (Even though I only had it once. lol)
Although I *try* not to eat spam now, I still can’t resist those crispy, toasted nuggets of goodness when they’re on the table. I love chopping spam up into little cubes to get more surface area to brown.
yumyum! spam is delicious when cooked the right way.
i don’t like onion stalks. i put chopped onion stalks in arroz caldo out of tradition rather than taste.
spam is teh lurve!
my favorite is turkey spam. but gawd, they’re really quite expensive na these days!^-^
Having grown up in Hawaii RAISED on Spam musubi, I love it to this day. (Made some yesterday, and was psyched to see this post!) Lightly fried with shoyu and sugar…wrapped up with sticky rice and nori…How can you possibly resist such a taste treat? They travel well too if you put them in plastic wrap- great to take along on hikes. They’re not as cute as your spam sakura though! Thanks for such a fun blog!!
I love Spam and Meilin (the other luncheon meat – round blocks!) thinly sliced, dusted with brown sugar, then fried to a crisp. The sugar brings out a caramel flavor in the meat, and the slices are like bacon, eaten with lots of rice, and some tomatoes. Bad for those of us with high blood pressure!
I wuv spam just as much as the next person. Hehehe!
I saw that there were many other flavor of spam, I don’t like turkey, smoked is alright, the normal one taste the best but I also want to try bacon.
@Mayonaka
Methinks you need more SPAM! *laughs*
@eatingclub vancouver
Wow, I never really stopped to think about it but now that you mentioned it, yeah! More browned surface area, more spammy goodness!
@tonylou
Hehehehe, I used to hate spring onions too, but would you believe I grew to like it?
@czjai
Turkey spam? I never tried it. I guess I should try other things out of my Regular, Lite and Black Pepper box. I agree though, ang mahal na n’ya!
@Malia
Thanks Malia! I’m glad you’re liking it here. About the Spam musubi though, I never tried it with soy and sugar. Your description makes me think it’s about time I try it the way Hawaiians prepare it. Next time I pop open a can, I’ll be sure to try it your way.
@Mila
Brown sugar? Never tried it that way but your description is killing me! I’ve half a mind to rush to the grocery, buy more, and try it tonight! And heehee, I remember Ma-Ling from my childhood, back when US imported goods were too expensive and Spam was a luxury. Do they still make it?
@Bea
There’s so much Spam to love!
@Ms.________
There’s a bacon flavored one? I have to look out for that. So far, the only ones I’ve tried are regular, lite, low sodium, black pepper and tabasco….mmmm…Tabasco. Killer good, needs a gajillion cups of rice to go with it.
Hi. Your bento creations are so cute! I’m amazed with your site. You are so good at this!
By the way, I’m Filipino like you and I’m so fascinated with Korean and Japanese cuisine.I hope you can guide me as to what stores sell quality bento boxes here in the Philippines.
Thanks
Thanks CyNurse! Glad you’re liking the site
As to bento boxes, where are you based? Is there a Japan Home Center / Daiso 88 Peso Store nearby? These stores, as well as the My Dollar Store can be good sources of bento boxes. It’s subject to availability though so it’s good to keep checking back. Department stores like SM are good sources too, especially during back to school season. Lastly, I recommend checking Japanese and Korean groceries because they sometimes stock both boxes and accessories.
Happy hunting!
Hi, kaoko. I bought my bento box from one of Davao’s department stores yesterday.
I’ll check out SM City Davao one of these days. I must admit, however, that I’m currently home-based so I just have to try my hand at preparing my lunchbox in the mornings, carefully set it aside for a few hours, and then eat out of it during lunchtime!
Btw, my boyfriend says you take really good pics.
Keep on blogging!
Some of the people in the international bento community do that. They prepare their own bento along with their families so they don’t have to worry about preparing food come lunch time.
And thanks again, both to you and your boyfriend