When I was at U of Hawaii Manoa this summer, spam musubi was found in many cafeterias and lunch spots. Along with loco moco, it is considered Hawaiian comfort food. I can't say how popular it actually was, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Loco moco, on the other hand, was kind of gross. I wonder about the Hawaiian intersection of Asian appreciation of Spam with American distaste of it.

Dr. Park has some good points. I would like to offer a possible clarification: Spam has a negative perception in the _mainland_ U.S.

Hawaii ADORES spam. See:
http://www.spamjamhawaii.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_musubi
The Wikipedia article for Spam notes:
The residents of the state of Hawaii and the territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) consume the most Spam per capita in the United States. On average, each person on Guam consumes 16 tins of Spam each year and the numbers at least equal this in the CNMI. Guam, Hawaii, and Saipan, the CNMI's principal island, have the only McDonald's restaurants that feature Spam on the menu. In Hawaii, Burger King began serving Spam in 2007 on its menu to compete with the local McDonald's chains.

Personally, I like some pan-fried spam and swiss on a sandwich, and I'm from Texas. For some reason, I never really absorbed the whole "food for poor people" perception that Spam's given, but I'm aware that the perception is pervasive in the mainland.

Compare lobster, which is now a luxury food but used to be considered unfit for anyone but poor people -- and I'm told the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at one point passed a law prohibiting lobster being served to prisoners more than twice a week because "a daily lobster dinner was considered cruel and unusual punishment" (http://www.lobsters.org/tlcbio/biology.html).

Spam was invented just prior to world war two and Americans' experiences during that war defined our perceptions of it just as the Korean war defined Koreans' perceptions.

Spam ( actual spam sold by Hormel) is not mystery meat, it's pork shoulder. However, because of war demand many companies produced spam like products with less regard to quality. For American servicemen, it was all "spam" though. Coupled withe the large amounts they ate, this destroyed spam's reputation among US servicemen, and they brought that prejudice back with them when they demobilized.

http://www.americainwwii.com/stories/spamagain.html

The experience in Korea was much different. One, the war created wide spread hunger which was relieved with US military imports of food. Two, the mobilization for Korea was much smaller so it's possible the spam eaten was real Hormel spam.

Apparently it is big in Guam too.
http://www.cracked.com/article_18895_7-things-from-america-that-are-insanely-popular-overseas.html

It also helps that Spam is an import — fetishization of Western culture.

I remember my Korean ex-boyfriend telling me about fried spam for breakfast as a funny story (he was from Long Island, but first generation American) and explaining to him about Southern Hash. We agreed they were pretty much equal.

Food is funny stuff - it took me ages to even try Kimchi, though I took to Miso for breakfast pretty quickly. But cabbage? My experiences with cabbage prior to that were mostly of the Irish and German varieties, and with that red spice? And such an unusual smell! I now have a big jar of it in my fridge and will probably have some with dinner. :)

It's funny, I've never seen SPAM as a poor person food, just one that nobody seemed to like to eat. Also, every time I go to buy it, it's usually around $3 per can...which is kind of expensive for the amount of meat you're getting, in my opinion.

Despite the people here commenting in disagreement, I do think the concept of Spam as a food that people don't usually eat out of choice in their homes--and would certainly never give as a gift--is widespread. I grew up in the south and midwest, and Spam was something that my grandma would fry and eat but that I would have died before offering to a friend. (Of course, we considered ourselves to have climbed into the middle class, whereas Grandma was a farmer.)

Hawaii's different, of course...

Anyway, thanks for the article! I knew Spam was perceived differently in Korea, Guam, Hawaii, etc., but had never seen gift packs of it. Fascinating.

Spam's actually kind of expensive.

Tinned corn beef is top quality food in Samoa (and Tonga), where it's called "pisupo" (the first canned food imported into Samoa by the English was pea soup, which wasn't very popular, but became a generic name for canned foods, and then spam once it arrived during WWII).

It's yummy cooked up into Samoan chop suey and other tasty dishes. Spam is also available, but that's a bit less common.

Could you reconsider the phrase "food for poor people"?

Spam's pretty much in the same category as ramen cups, vienna sausages, and pop-tarts, I think.

Those aren't fancy foods, no -- on the U.S. mainland (unlike Hawaii and Korea), I wouldn't expect to see them in a gift package. (Though now that I think about it, the pasteurized processed cheese foods that used to come in those Hickory Farms gift boxes were pretty much the cheese equivalent of Spam.)

But I think plenty of affluent people eat them, and I don't think it's common to look down on people who eat them.

Having said that, I'd agree a lot of people probably look down on anyone -- other than a grad student -- who maintains a steady diet of those foods, and I think there's a ton of people who look down on low-income moms who feed those foods to their kids. But that's more about judging the moms than it is about the foods.

You missed the boat on this one, Spam? Try Kit-Kat, now we're talking!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_kat

This just shows you how different cultures are and how it can be very different in other areas. It can be portrayed totally different throughout different cultures.

I have always had a stigma about Spam as well until I tried it once. I love it with eggs and toast. I also didn't hesitate to have my kids try it. My son loves it fried with ketchup.