HONOLULU (CN) — Waikiki came alive with music, laughter and the sizzle of Spam Saturday evening as more than 30,000 visitors flocked to the annual Spam Jam, a festival celebrating Hawaii’s favorite canned delicacy with bold, unconventional eats.
Spam — a processed meat made with pork, ham, salt, water, sugar, potato starch and sodium nitrite — has a love affair with the islands dating back to World War II.
“The true root of the island’s love for SPAM products goes back to World War II, when the luncheon meat was served to GIs,” Hormel Foods, the company behind the brand, says on its website. “By the end of the war, SPAM products were adopted into local culture, with Fried SPAM and rice becoming a popular meal.”
The numbers speak for themselves. Hawaii consumes about 7 million cans of Spam annually — more per capita than any other U.S. state. And for locals like Samantha Komiyama, a 26-year-old sales rep for the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, Spam is a big part of everyday life…