In a brightly lit restaurant in downtown Hong Kong, the meaty smell of fried spam fills the air.
While Beyond and Impossible started out focused on beef,"from the beginning, it was very obvious that in Asia, the most-consumed meat is pork," said OmniFoods founder David Yeung. "Some people eat like five times a day," Yeung said, as staff served the meat-free spam noodles, along with two other products,"Omni Luncheon and Eggless Toast" and"OmniPork Luncheon Fries" -- admittedly, the name doesn't quite roll off the tongue like"spam."
SPAM® -- as Hormel styles it, in a decades-long, losing battle against genericization -- was initially marketed to soldiers. By 1941, more than 100 million pounds of spam had been shipped abroad to feed allied troops during World War II, and large quantities were also sold to countries suffering as a result of the conflict.
To this day in the US, mention of the canned meat can often provoke disgust rather than salivation. Filipina writer Sherina Ong recounted in 2014 how, as a student at an American university,"any mention of eating spam was met with a grimace and a resounding 'ew, why?!'" In the UK,"spam is often looked at quite negatively as a cheap, salty processed meat," said Da-Hae West, a Korean chef and food writer based in the south of England.In the English-speaking world, spam -- sold in the iconic blue-and-yellow cans that have changed little over the decades -- also gained a slightly ridiculous air thanks to a"Monty Python" sketch depicting a cafe which sold nothing but dishes containing the luncheon meat.
In Korea, spam is served alongside kimchi and rice, in Budae Jjigae or"army stew," and even given as gifts for Chuseok, the annual harvest festival. Japanese spam dishes include"po-oku tamago," spam and eggs, and the Japanese-Hawaiian"spam musubi," fried spam on top of a rice ball. Writing about spam's role in Hawaiian cuisine, author Rachel Laudan said spam has"a certain status, harking back to the time when buying something canned conveyed affluence and keeping up with the times." Without any prejudice to turn people off spam, Hawaiians and others were able to keep enjoying it guilt-free.
In markets where spam is still looked-down upon, the need for affordable food trumps snobbery for many consumers in hard times.
According to recent market research, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for some 39% of luncheon meat sales, with China, South Korea and Japan among the top consumers