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, including the history of spam musubi, tasting musubi in Japan, and most importantly an easy spam musubi recipe. Read the post to see how to make spam musubi in under 30 minutes.
When my kids were younger, they were culinary worldschoolers, exploring the world through the lens of food. We spent a couple of years traveling through Europe in an RV before making our way to Asia, where we spent several months eating our way through Japan and Korea.
Food has been one of our primary methods of education for as long as I can remember—one of my most popular blogs on Pint Size Gourmets was the post about how we turned our kids into foodies from such a young age!
Stumbling upon the recent SPAM Brand x Nom Life Collection took me on a wonderful trip down memory lane to when I taught my burgeoning kid-foodies how to make one of our all-time favorite snacks, spam musubi.
Made from sticky white rice, spam, and wrapped in nori, spam musubi is a snack I grew up eating often in Hawaii. My love for this snack clearly passed on to my kids, who enjoy it even now as teenagers—it’s delicious, filling, and best of all, easy to make. In fact, spam musubi was not just one of the first snacks I taught them to make as culinary worldschoolers, but one of the first recipes I shared on the blog as well!
Keep scrolling to see the cutest pictures of my (then) mini sous chef, Leah, prepping the musubi mold.
History of Spam Musubi in Hawaii
Spam Musubi is a popular food item here in Hawaii. 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.
When Japanese and Chinese plantation workers brought rice—one of the main ingredients in spam musubi—to our islands back in the early 1900’s, the grain 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 by Japanese-Americans placed in internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.
Cans of spam were plentiful during the war and the Japanese used them to create a type of sushi…the early beginnings of what we know of as Hawaii’s favorite snack, spam musubi.
Finding Musubi in Japan
On our last trip to Japan we were surprised to find musubi in Japan. They were wrapped in nori (seaweed) and sold widely throughout Japan’s convenience stores as a quick snack or lunch.
Except they weren’t referred to as musubi, but were called onigiri. Onigiri in Japanese translates to rice ball (both onigiri and omusubi in Japanese mean rice ball). And, instead of being filled with spam like we were accustomed to in Hawaii, we found the onigiri in Japan to be filled with:
- Pickled plums
- Salted salmon
- Several other salty or sour ingredients
How to Make Spam Musubi – An Easy Spam Musubi Recipe
Made with just three ingredients, white rice, spam, and nori, spam musubi can be found at almost any convenience or grocery store on the island. It is one of our 10 must-try local foods from Hawaii.
Here’s how to make Eat Play Stay Hawaii’s super simple spam musubi recipe.
Spam Musubi Ingredients
- 1 Pack – Japanese Seaweed “Nori”
- 1 Can – Spam (there’s other flavors like jalapeño, try it if you can find it)
- 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)
- Musubi Maker or Onigiri Maker (this makes it so much easier)
- Small bowl of water (incase rice sticks to mold, loosen with a little water)
Get the all the ingredients to make spam musubi
Spam Musubi Recipe to Print
Easy Spam Musubi Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pack Japanese Seaweed “Nori”
- 1 can spam (there’s other flavors like jalapēno, try it if you can find it}
- 3 cups cooked short grain Japanese rice (preferably cooked in a rice cooker, rice should be sticky. follow recipe on bag)
- 1 Musubi Maker or Onigiri Maker
- 1 small bowl water (incase rice sticks to mold, loosen with a little water)
Instructions
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First, you’ll need to slice the spam and pan fry it.
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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.
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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.
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Next, cut up the nori to fit the mold(s) we purchased online.
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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 a rectangle mold for the more traditional spam musubi pieces.
We’ll show you how to make both below.
The Onigiri Mold
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Once the rice is finished and was still a bit HOT not steaming, we began putting our first musubi together.
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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!
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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
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LouLou then began making the more popular shaped spam musubi using the rectangle mold. She required almost little or no help at all!
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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.
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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.
Spam Musubi Recipe Instructions (with Pictures)
1. First, you’ll need to slice the spam and pan fry it.
2. 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.
3. While waiting for the rice to cook, pan fry the spam in a non-stick pan. No oil is needed as the spam releases oil when it fries up. Place fried spam on a plate to cool.
4. Next, cut up the nori to fit the mold(s) we purchased online.
5. 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 the nori around the spam and rice rectangle!
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 recipe to give it more flavor.
My kids have always preferred the simple version and can eat a lot of them in one sitting.
However, if you’re interested in more spam musubi recipes, check out the Hawaiian-style Spam Musubi cookbook.
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…
Have you tried spam musubi before? Do you like it – let us know in the comments below!
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Don’t forget to check out all our other kid-friendly recipes.
