-When there is
a civil emergency, people flock to the supermarkets
to hoard toilet paper and Spam. It's one of those things,
during the holidays, there was once fights over
the Black Friday Spam special. People go crazy
over Spam. ♪♪ Aloha, everyone. Sheldon Simeon, here, back with
another Hawaii lesson for you, this time talking about
musubi, and very in particular
the most popular, the one that everyone
recognizes, Spam musubi. Is it Hawaii?
Is it Japanese? So, musubi is a rice ball
fashioned after the onigiri, which is Japanese. Usually, it will be filled with
something like a pickled plum, or just salted
and covered with seaweed. How did we start off with this
rice ball -- the onigiri -- and then end up with this
meat-burrito-sushi concoction we call "Spam musubi"? Basically,
it's a pork cake. This pressed,
cured piece of meat that everyone likes it. So, it's salty. When you fry it up,
it becomes crisp on the outside and tender
in the middle. As the years have gone by,
you start to see, now, chefs taking creative freedom
on it, and making Spam --
like this guy, Chef Rob [indistinct], with his
[indistinct] artisan... I don't want
to say "Spam," but basically,
he's making Spam. But using heritage pigs
from Maui, and then, creating his take
on this luncheon meat. The musubi
is a blank canvas that you can put all types of
different proteins on top of it. You know, I've seen people put
pieces of hot dogs on top of it. Here's another one --
Portuguese sausage, sausage that you will see
in so many breakfasts in Hawaii. You can even
go to McDonald's, and get a Portuguese
sausage platter. So, we're gonna make a rice
topping called "furikake." It's that everything spice
of Hawaii. It's the spice that is usually
meant to top off on rice from Japan. So, we're going to make
our own version using nori, some bonito flakes,
sesame seeds, some salt,
and some sugar. We blurred the lines,
you know? There was a mother that was born
in the Philippines, you know, my dad
that spoke Ilocano, but here I am,
thinking that furikake was part of my culture. And I think that's unique,
very unique to Hawaii, that those lines are blurred,
that you -- there different cultures
become yours just because it's so integrated
into everything in Hawaii. Furikake is, through
and through, Japanese. You'll see it
on top of everything. It was used
to flavor onigiri. You see it on the top
of bento boxes, flavoring rice and fish. There was always bottles
of furikake in my household. When I came
to New York, I thought the Everything bagel
had furikake on it. "Can I get the bagel
with the furikake?" Don't be that guy. Don't steal my idea --
furikake bagels. I'm gonna take all of
these ingredients, and then
toast them up. I'm gonna toast that
until everything comes together. Japanese food
has a huge -- probably the most influence
on Hawaii cuisine. You see it --
the addition of soy sauce, the addition of shoyu
in Hawaii cuisine has the most
biggest influence. Teriyaki. That's why you see
Hawaiian barbecue. You'd think that
it's Hawaiian, but it's that shoyu sauce
in there. Toasty. That's gonna be used for topping
on our musubi. What's the first thing
that you learn to cook? growing up in Hawaii? You better learn
how to cook rice. It's actually a term. If you're being bad in school,
or wherever, the teacher might tell you,
"Go home. Cook rice." I'm gonna do equal parts
for this sushi rice. So, for every cup
of rice, I'm gonna put
one cup of water. So, we're using
sushi rice because we want the rice
to be sticking together. We want the rice to be --
actually become this mold, as you put it into
the press. See, musubi isn't
technically a sushi. It doesn't have
vinegar in it. In order to be called
a "sushi," you must add vinegar
to the rice. We don't want that
for the musubi. We just want it to be cooked
and sticky. So, I'm gonna rinse it,
get it clean, washed out a few times, until the water starts
to get clear on us. Three cups of water. Make sure it's level. Wipe the bottom. Make sure it's dry. Put a lid on it. And remember, make sure
you press the button. Hear that moment
playing basketball outside. Oh, my God. I can hear my --
hear my mom yelling, "You never pushed
the button!" Scarred,
30 years later. Alright, so, our rice
has just clicked off, and it's nice and warm. I'm just gonna take this,
and fluff it. We're not gonna
put oil in the pan, because the amount of fat
that is in the Spam is more than enough. Let's take some of
our Portuguese sausage. Spam has gone through
these different moments, and shined in Hawaii,
so to say. When it first came out,
Spam was everywhere, right? These GIs coming back
from World War II was requesting
to eat Spam. There was also a lot
of military rations. That's why you see
canned goods so prolific in that time of the history
in Hawaii. As Spam was everywhere, everyone started to include it
into their cuisine -- Filipinos, Japanese,
Hawaiians, all of that all,
all included it into their cuisine. As Spam grew, everyone learned
that Hawaii eats Spam. "Oh, my God,
everybody in Hawaii. How much Spam
do you eat?" It became a stigma. It became this thing
that we're known for now. And then,
it became this stigma where Spam was something that
we were only known for, and we were fighting to say
that our cuisine was so much more
than just Spam and rice. I think, nowadays,
we've reverted back to see that Spam
is part of our culture -- an important part
that fed a lot of people, and the reason why it is eaten
so much in Hawaii. I love people
like Chef Rob, that's making their own version
of Spam, bringing it to the next level,
and trying new things. It's something that
we should be proud about. It's part of our DNA. Nothing to hide from. So, I'm gonna just
sear it off. Kind of get brown
on both sides. Once we get some color on it,
we're gonna pull it off. That's what you want to see,
right there -- even golden brown. In that same pan, we're gonna take
hints of Japanese flavors. I'm gonna deglaze that. I'm gonna take some sweet
rice wine -- some mirin. ♪♪ Add some sugar. And finally,
some shoyu. One of my favorite memories
of Spam musubi is giving it to the sound guys
on "Top Chef." I would create musubis
for myself, to make snacks,. so that we had them
throughout the day. But I made friends
with the sound guys, and gave them musubis. So, it was amazing
to be at judges table, getting grilled
by Padma, and then,
look over to the sound guy, and he's eating
a musubi. Amazing. So, we've got all our components
to your classic musubi. I'm gonna cut it down, so that
it's to size of our container that we're gonna
wrap it with. And then,
we'll get going. So, I'm just gonna take the nori
to take a second. Just brushed
right over the fire. That's all that
this needs, a little bit of --
little bit of heat. So, I encourage you guys --
go out there, get you guys one of these fancy
musubi makers, and then, you'll see
how easy it is. So, the credit of the creation
of the Spam musubi goes to Barbara Funamura,
of the Joni-Hana restaurant, out of Po'ipu, Kaua'i. So, the original version
of Spam musubi was actually like an onigiri --
a triangle-shaped rice ball. It was stuffed
with Spam, covered with a little bit
of furikake, and then,
served like that -- Until one of her workers
brought in an [indistinct], or a rice press. It was bamboo-made,
not like this acrylic one. She would put the rice
down on the bottom, found out that Spam
fit perfectly in the middle, wrap it up
with her nori. And she knew,
from then on, that that was gonna be
the style of the musubi. And them,
Spam musubi is created. There you have it. The perfect bite of salty,
umami goodness. This beautiful,
beautiful concoction -- the Spam musubi You'll find it
on the countertops at convenience stores,
at gas stations, supermarkets. You'll see kids down at
the beach devouring them, or uncle, quietly, in his truck,
in the parking lot, listening to Don Ho as he
finishes off a bite of musubi, and thinks about Auntie going away to Las Vegas
all alone by himself. I got captured
in the moment. That's what musubi does. It's amazing.
Look at this. A thing of beauty
that only can come together in a place called "Hawaii." On the surface,
it looks Japanese, but it took Barbara Funamura
and her amazing talent to put together Spam,
sweet soy, rice, and nori. This thing that
is so convenient, equally to any sushi bar
across the world. The powerful
Spam musubi. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪
