207 - Grits & Spam

No, I’m not from the south. I was literally asked that once by a supermarket employee when they saw me leaving their store empty handed after they asked what I was looking for and I told them “grits,” which they literally didn’t have anywhere (I wanted it to make a batch of shrimp & grits). I wasn’t aware one had to hail from southern states to have familiarity with this grainy porridge, which we enjoy occasionally for breakfast. Most people mix cheese with it but I prefer a little maple syrup. To each his own.

For most of my life I viewed Spam, and any canned meat for that matter, with the exception of tuna, as beneath my dignity. Then I tried musubi, which is best described as a kind of Hawaiian sushi made with Spam, and I really liked it and started making it myself which, of course necessitated working with the stuff.

We discovered a good way to use it is in place of ham or chicken in salads, which is regularly on the menu here. I slice it into small sticks then fry them in a skilled until crispy then toss ‘em on the greens.

We did this the other day and wound up with some leftover spam chunks. The next morning we had some grits. threw in the leftover spam and, voila:

Grits & Spam