Wham Bam Thank You SPAM!

This week our secret ingredient was SPAM. After being away for two weeks I had a hard time coming up with the secret ingredient until I went into my parents' pantry and found a can of luncheon meat from an obscure brand-- aka fake spam. Seriously, forget the free calendars from supermarkets and forget the saran-wrapped remote controls... you know you're inside an Asian household when you see fake sh*t. I have to admit, I am quite proud of my parents' Asian cheapness. How else would they be able to put their kids through college?!

As you precious readers know the routine, the deal is to make a great meal for 4 people under $25. Sadly, spam can be quite costly even when it is on sale and I knew that to make a 4 course meal with Spam as the key ingredient will be a hard task.

The menu consisted of spam musubi - pan fried spam on a bed of japanese rice with seaweed wrapper. We dipped the musubi in the eel sauce. This was probably my favorite dish - sweet and salty with crispy texture from the seaweed.



mac n' cheese spam - Growing up I hated mac n' cheese.. In fact I did not really eat mac n cheese until very recently. We put the spam inside the mac n cheese. Pour croutons crumbs on top with a spray of pam so that the crumbs will stick. To ensure ultimate deliciousness - I added my extra secret ingredient... that's right! bacon bits! SEriously?! Who does not like bacon? Except maybe pigs and Muslims.





spam with ramen - As you go down the menu list you probably think this is less gourmet and more starving college students dinner but to offset the poorness of the ramen and spam, I threw in some stir fry asparagus. Gourmet I tell you!




jello shaped as spam - This dish was probably my favorite because I had a chance to be creative. What better way to celebrate spam by making jello that is shaped like spam?! I used peach flavored gelatin to make the spam, lemon flavored gelatin to make the egg yolks and the egg whites were actually panna cotta!





The total meal came to $24.86! For a while I was fretting my decisions to use spam as the main ingredient since it can be quite expensive and easily go over the $25 budget. But with my menu, I was able to use lots of fillers (e.g rice from spam musubi, noodles from mac n cheese, ramen) so that we'll be full without having to use a lot of spam. Speaking of that Asian cheapness... I guess the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree :) Mama and Papa Nguyen are quite proud. Overall, a huge sincere thank you to my sous chefs Foodsluts, Chikayo, and Kunney for another great meal!

Cheers -


The Monday Supper Club