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Writer's pictureWendy Awai-Dakroub

Easy Kid-Friendly Spam Musubi Recipe

We’re lucky to live in a state as diverse as Hawaii – the food that we eat on a daily basis reflects the cultural diversity that exists on our islands. This post is for anyone that’s looking to learn more about spam musubi, the history of spam musubi, tasting musubi in Japan, and most importantly an easy kid-friendly spam musubi recipe. Read the post to see how to make spam musubi. 

Since my kids are culinary worldschoolers, food drives our daily curriculum. Which is why when they wanted to learn how to make one of their favorite kid-friendly snacks, spam musubi, I, myself had to do some research into the origin of spam musubi, something that I also grew up eating as a child.



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History of Spam Musubi in Hawaii

Spam Musubi is a popular food item here in Hawaii. When the Japanese/Chinese plantation workers brought rice to our island back in the early 1900’s, it slowly started to replace Hawaiian “taro” as the preferred starch eaten by locals.

According to Hawaiian food historian Arnold Hiura who writes about the diverse cuisine of Hawaii in his book, Kau Kau: Cuisine & Culture in the Hawaiian Islands(which I highly recommend!, spam musubi was actually created after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese-Americans placed in internment camps across the US during World War II. Cans of spam were plentiful during the war and the Japanese used slices of spam to create a type of sushi…the early beginnings of what we know of as Hawaii’s favorite snack, spam musubi.

When I was in grade school, if there was a field trip, every parent made the same thing for their child; a tupperware container filled rice and hotdogs or Spam. That was it…maybe a fried egg if you were lucky.

Finding Musubi in Japan

On our last trip to Japan we were surprised to find “musubi” in Japan…except they were called onigiri. Onigiri in Japanese literally means rice ball. Both onigiri and omusubi in Japanese mean rice ball. In Japan, a traditional onigiri is filled with pickled plums, salted salmon or any salty or sour ingredient, wrapped in nori (seaweed) and sold widely throughout Japans convenience stores as a quick snack or lunch.

easy kid-friendly spam musubi recipe

“Musubi’s or Onigiri are sold in convenient stores throughout Japan”


Made with just 3 ingredients, white rice, spam and nori – the Spam Musubi can be found at almost any convenient store (7-11, etc.) on the island. It is one of our 10 must-try local foods from Hawaii.

My kids absolutely LOVE spam musubi.

Tonight, however, is special…the kids wanted to blog about “how to make spam musubi,” their kid-friendly recipe for you and so our adventure begins…

How to Make Spam  Musubi – An Easy Kid-Friendly Spam Musubi Recipe

easy kid-friendly spam musubi recipe

The tools & ingredients you will need


Ingredients

  1. 1  Pack – Japanese Seaweed “Nori”

  2. 1 Can – Spam (there’s other flavors like jalapeño, try it if you can find it)

  3. 3 Cups – Cooked Short Grain Japanese Rice (preferably cooked in a rice cooker – we love using our Instant Pot for this; rice should be sticky, follow recipe on bag)

  4. Musubi Maker or Onigiri Maker (this makes it so much easier)

  5. Small bowl of water (incase rice sticks to mold, loosen with a little water)

Get the all the ingredients to make spam musubi 

Instructions

First, you’ll need to slice the spam and pan fry it. [genesis_column size=”one-half” position=”first”]

easy kid-friendly spam musubi recipe

Lou Lou carefully cutting the “spam” with a plastic knife

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easy kid-friendly spam musubi recipe

Should look something like this 🙂

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We use a rice cooker to cook our sushi rice and usually just follow the instructions on the bag. If you want the perfect rice for spam musubi, you’ll need short grain rice and preferably a Japanese brand. See our recommendation above.

While waiting for the rice to cook, the adult (“that’s me”) in the house fries the spam. Place fried spam on a plate to cool.

Next, cut up the nori to fit the mold(s) we purchased online. [genesis_column size=”one-half” position=”first”]

easy kid-friendly spam musubi recipe

Jaf cutting the nori…

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easy kid-friendly spam musubi recipe

It should look something like this!

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Unless you have access to a specialized Japanese store, your best bet for buying the molds is online. We use two kinds of mold: a triangle onigiri one

 that makes perfect snack-size spam musubis, and

for the more traditional spam musubi pieces.

We’ll show you how to make both below.

easy kid-friendly spam musubi recipe

“Instructions on how to use a spam musubi mold”


The Onigiri Mold

Once the rice is finished and was still a bit HOT not steaming, we began putting our first musubi together. [genesis_column size=”one-half” position=”first”]

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Place thin 1″ thick piece of nori into onigiri roll. Fill halfway with rice, add odd pieces of spam or triangular cut spam into mold, top again with rice. Wrap nori around remaining rice and….press! [genesis_column size=”one-half” position=”first”]

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These little guys are the perfect size for kids and they love the triangle shape of this spam musubi. We prefer using this mold for easy & quick lunches and snacks.

The Rectangle Mold

LouLou then began making the more popular shaped spam musubi using the rectangle mold. She required almost little or no help at all! [genesis_column size=”one-half” position=”first”]

easy kid-friendly spam musubi recipe

Next, the rectangle mold!

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Place mold on top of pre-cut nori. Fill halfway with rice and then add in a piece of rectangular cut spam. [genesis_column size=”one-half” position=”first”]

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Fill with more rice till it just about loosely fills the top. Press and wrap! [genesis_column size=”one-half” position=”first”]

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easy kid-friendly spam musubi recipe

Cut into two pieces for the little ones to share 🙂 It’s really that simple!

Many people add fried eggs or furikake to the musubi to give it more flavor. The kids prefer the simple version and can eat 2-3 of them in one sitting. However, if you’re interested in more spam musubi recipes, check out the Hawaiian-style Spam Musubi cookbook

You are now filled with the knowledge to go forth and make your own spam musubi…

Spam Musubi How-To Videos

Here’s some videos we took. I find them more funny than useful!

OUR FIRST ATTEMPT CUTTING SPAM…


CUTTING NORI WITH GREAT PRECISION…


Recipe to Print


Easy Kid-Friendly Spam Musubi Recipe

Course Snack

Cuisine Japanese

Author Pint Size Gourmets

Ingredients

  1. 1 pack Japanese Seaweed "Nori"

  2. 1 can spam (there's other flavors like jalapēno, try it if you can find it}

  3. 3 cups cooked short grain Japanese rice (preferably cooked in a rice cooker, rice should be sticky. follow recipe on bag)

  4. 1 Musubi Maker or Onigiri Maker

  5. 1 small bowl water (incase rice sticks to mold, loosen with a little water)

Instructions

First, you'll need to slice the spam and pan fry it.

We use a rice cooker to cook our sushi rice and usually just follow the instructions on the bag. If you want the perfect rice for spam musubi, you'll need short grain rice and preferably a Japanese brand. See our recommendation above.

While waiting for the rice to cook, the adult ("that's me") in the house fries the spam. Place fried spam on a plate to cool.

Next, cut up the nori to fit the mold(s) we purchased online.

Unless you have access to a specialized Japanese store, your best bet for buying the molds is online. We use two kinds of mold: a triangle onigiri one that makes perfect snack-size spam musubis, and a rectangle mold for the more traditional spam musubi pieces.

We'll show you how to make both below.

The Onigiri Mold

Once the rice is finished and was still a bit HOT not steaming, we began putting our first musubi together.

Place thin 1" thick piece of nori into onigiri roll. Fill halfway with rice, add odd pieces of spam or triangular cut spam into mold, top again with rice. Wrap nori around remaining rice and….press!

These little guys are the perfect size for kids and they love the triangle shape of this spam musubi. We prefer using this mold for easy & quick lunches and snacks.

The Rectangle Mold

LouLou then began making the more popular shaped spam musubi using the rectangle mold. She required almost little or no help at all!

Place mold on top of pre-cut nori. Fill halfway with rice and then add in a piece of rectangular cut spam.

Fill with more rice till it just about loosely fills the top. Press and wrap! Cut into two pieces for the little ones to share 🙂 It's really that simple!

Recipe Notes

Many people add fried eggs or furikake to the musubi to give it more flavor. The kids prefer the simple version and can eat 2-3 of them in one sitting.

However, if you're interested in more spam musubi recipes, check out the Hawaiian-style Spam Musubi cookbook

Have you tried spam musubi before? Do you like it – let us know in the comments below!

Like It? Click to Pin It! [genesis_column size=”one-half” position=”first”]

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Don’t forget to check out our other kid-friendly recipes.

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