Video: How To Make Spam Musubi

There is something magical about canned lunch meat smashed between sticky rice and dried seaweed. It's known as the Spam musubi, Hawaii's unapologetic, undeniably delicious Japanese-American sushi mash-up.

You can read about all the lore and legend of the iconic pre-ramen burger/rice burger forerunner, but today we're making it. First, you need a cheap plastic musubi maker. Yeah, yeah, one-function kitchen gadgets . . . but this is one specifically designed to fit fat slices of Spam.

Make two cups of Japanese short-grain sticky rice and keep it warm. Slap the Spam out of the can-none of that fancy flavored kind, only OG-and slice it into six to eight pieces, depending on how generous you want to be. Toss them in a nonstick pan on medium high for a couple minutes on each side, until that gray coagulated fat crisps and coats the meat in a browned, dare we say, caramelized exterior.

Now that you have a nice pile of hot Spam, here comes the fun. Take a sheet of nori (dried seaweed), making sure the perforated lines are horizontal, and fold it in half like a book. Place the rectangular part of the mold in the middle of the sheet so its short sides are flush with the edges and longer sides of nori jut out above and below the mold.

Scoop a small heap of sticky rice into the center of the musubi maker, then press with the flat topper for one uniform layer, about an eighth to a quarter inch thick. Sprinkle on some furikake-as dense or as light as you want with this sweeter, bonito-less kind-then stack on a slice of seared Spam. Dust the Spam with more furikake and another layer of pressed rice.

Free the Spam musubi from the mold by pushing the topper down and sliding the mold up past the topper. Take the two long sides and fold them around the sides and seal with a bit of water. Set aside, seam-side down, and keep going with the other Spam slices. Or just start snacking on this one first-musubi making is hard work.

Get more delicious ideas for Spam:
- Make a Spam Wellinton and More with the Luncheon Meat
- Give Spam Musubi a Sweet-Salty Spin
- Swap Meatballs for Spam Spaghetti