I'm still not sure why there is vegetarian Spam, but...
I became a full time vegetarian 10 or 11 years ago. There are still some dishes I miss that had meat in them. Not necessarily the meat itself. Some I have modified to be vegetarian. Other I have not.
All in all there are not a lot I find myself wanting. One is an Italian cold cut sub, another is various dishes made with spam. 20 years ago I worked in a logistics department and most of my coworkers were from the Philippines, I learned to love spam. It was also a great camping food. I would love to try vegetarian spam.
Maybe! Idk, I used to like mock duck. Soy based lunch meat is pretty good too. Alas, I'll never be able to try this company's stuff as it all has wheat in it.
Sounds like its essentially seitan, and frankly you can do amazing things with wheat gluten. My personal fav is the hilariously named WTF method (wash that flour).
For spam I imagine they just salt the hell out of it. 😂
Spam is literally like one of the most delicious things on the planet. I have no clue how anyone sane can dislike it.....i bet the people saying it's gross have never even had it and just assume it's gross because it comes in a can.
There are also a few Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese dishes that use spam. Basically any place that has or has had a US military presence at some point has developed spam based dishes because they leave tons (literally) of the stuff behind when they pull the troops out.
I have a Chamorro coworker who had a whole rant on how Hawaiian pizza should have spam instead of ham and how awesome spam is. I think it's safe to add the people of Guam to your list.
They are correct. I'd do it myself but there's alot of spam in 1 can for a pizza or even 2. I'll have to set some aside next time I make Spam Masubi. Of course that means a few less servings of masubi.... life is full of hard choices...
From Hawaii. This isn't Spam, this is luncheon meat. Or veggie luncheon meat. Sorry to be so snobby about canned meat products, but you can take my Spam from my cold, dead hands. I'll give you all my luncheon meat.
I was very doubtful about this when it first came out, but it was really cheap at one point so I gave it a try, even though I don't like spam. This stuff is delicious.
It's sold in quite a few different countries. I get it from Woolworths in Australia.
I can't really remember what spam tastes like, except that I recall not liking it as a kid; I think it was too salty and too spongy for my liking. This product seems to have a meatier texture than spam though. I've tried it a few different ways and it's quite enjoyable. I even use it as a burger patty replacement. Slice it up, fry it, and it pairs well with cheese and tomato sauce.
This stuff is great. Not a vegetarian but I eat plenty of protein alternatives because of family. Un-Meat Plant Based Luncheon Meat Style (you have to say the whole thing) is actually preferable to spam.
There's a vegan sushi/ramen place near me that makes something between musubi and onigiri with vegan spam and they're crazy good. So that's one use for it.
Haven't had this particular brand, but I've made vegan musubi before with another. Turned out great and tbh I couldn't tell the difference. The only downside was the price difference.
Honestly it might be, but I've just never really thought of it as a UK product, it's just a weird thing Americans eat, rather like ramen. Whatever that is.
The funny thing is that both of those are far more Asian/ Pacific Islander cuisine than American. Sure we eat the stuff here, but they invented and perfected the stuff.
I can imagine this tasting like actual spam since I find the vegan hot dogs and vegan Bologna actually taste just like the meat ones. It gets harder to replicate the meat taste as you get into ground beef and steak substitutes
Impossible whoppers are pretty good. Impossible burgers from the store are too salty for me and leave a weird taste. I like the vegan chicken burgers though
Lucky for me. I've been eating Bologna sandwiches for lunch since I was 10 years old, it's like my comfort food. I went vegetarian and just eat the vegan Bologna now
Here's the thing. You said "vegan luncheon meat is spam."
Is it in the same USDA classification? Yes. No one's arguing that.
As someone who is a scientist who studies processed food, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls luncheon meat spam. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing.
If you're saying "luncheon meat category" you're referring to the economic grouping of the USDA, which includes things from Armour Treet to Great Value to Swift Prem.
So your reasoning for calling a vegan luncheon meat spam is because random people "call the one in the tin spam?" Let's get King Oscar and Chicken of the Sea in there, then, too.
Also, calling something meat or spam? It's not one or the other, that's not how nutrition classification works. They're both. Spam is spam and a member of the luncheon meat category. But that's not what you said. You said luncheon meat is spam, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all tinned meat spam, which means you'd call prem, treet, and other luncheon meat spam, too. Which you said you don't.
Pan fried this stuff was good, mixed in with a bunch of stuff in a rice cooker, just awful. Every other fake meat I've tried works fine for lazy rice cooker cooking, not this stuff.
I’ve not eaten meat my whole adult life, so the only things I really miss are nostalgic things from childhood. There’s tons of mock burgers and sausages around but I kind of miss war food because it reminds me of being round my nanas.
I bought one of those vegan Spam-a-likes and I have to say I really didn't like it.
I my thought process was "Spam's so heavily processed, how much worse could it be if no meat were involved?" the answer turned out to be "A lot." I don't know how to describe it. It's like... you know how there are all beef hot dogs, but they don't taste anything like beef? It was kinda that but with Spam... but Spam isn't very meat like to begin with.
All that being said, after the plant based Spam sat in my fridge until it started to get fuzzy, I threw it out for the stray cats in my neighborhood. Despite the fact I found it to be quite unappealing, starving alley cats found it to be meat like enough to eat it... which I guess is a mark in it's favor?
Because there's only so many vegetables and so many ways inspiration will help you on how to prepare them. Especially if you care about protein intake, it can be quite a challenge with just vegetables.
Plus that's a can that lasts forever and is easy to transport.
I like variation, protein and ease of use. I'll take 3 please and thank you.