The 6th Annual Waikiki Spam Jam was held this past Saturday from 4pm to 10pm on Kalakaua avenue, with streets closed off to traffic, block party style.
With Hawaii still holding the crown as the largest consumer of Hormel SPAM in the nation, it’s no wonder this infamous mystery meat is celebrated at such an epic scale as we see here.
Here I present a pictorial walkthrough of this year’s event!…

The Gordon Biersch booth

Gordon Biersch’s various SPAM-themed food items
Towards the end of the night, they were selling everything for just $2 each, so I bought a BBQ SPAM Slider to try…

Gordon Biersch BBQ Spam Slider: Guava Mango Chutney BBQ sauce, red onions, and SPAM in a sweet taro roll, $6 ($2 clearance price!). Was pretty good! They should have fried the SPAM more though (if at all; I think it was straight out of the can), as the BBQ sauce kinda’ overpowered the SPAM flavor as it was. But heck, for $2, it’s all good!
This has got to be one of the coolest ways to make use of SPAM can…

A SPAM tip can! Now when you finish reading my blog entries, you can kindly leave me a tip. Mahalo! lol
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, its… its..

It’s the Turkey SPAM MAN!
A SPAM JAM just wouldn’t be jammin’ without this…

I give that a “10 SPAM Musubi” Tasty Island rating! Witness the grill markings. Brilliant!
When you’re working on a SPAM Musubi assembly line, keeping the energy going with a couple cans of Red Bull can certainly help to keep things going!…

The Shack was in full force at this year’s event…


The Shack will soon be opening a location in the Waikiki Trade Center, next door to Zanzabar nightclub. Brendan, the owner, is that whacky guy in the back with the white visor.
The Shack was serving this very interesting SPAM burger…

The Shack’s SPAM Burger with Pom Frites (at least that’s what Brendan said it was) and 2 pickle wedges
You know what? That SPAM burger rocked! Good job, Shack!



Coconut Willy’s is a restaurant and bar with nightly live music, located in the Waikiki International Marketplace

Doraku Sushi booth
Giovanni Pastrami (from Lewers street) was offering two types of SPAM Pizza…

SPAM Pizza

Hawaiian” SPAM Pizza

The Giovanni Pastrami booth
As was the case last year, some of the food vendors didn’t include SPAM in their offerings, but mainly participated for the charitable cause and benefit of exposure. Here’s a “traditional” Greek Salad from the Leo’s Tavern booth…

Leo’s Tavern Greek Salad
and this beautiful tray of Baklava

Leo’s Tavern Baklava
The Simply Ono booth served up mostly traditional Hawaiian food and plate lunch fare…

I didn’t read the sign, but perhaps this Laulau has SPAM instead of pork in it?…

Simply Ono Laulau and Lomi Lomi Salmon plate
There were a a few non-food vendors, such as this Sarong and Pareo booth…

Hey, that pareo matches that girl’s blue hair!

Kapena was on stage providing the entertainment…

Kapena jams the SPAM Jam

There’s teddy bears, then there’s “SPAMMY” bears

SPAM logo golf tees, golf balls and a baseball

SPAM cookbook, pot holder and piggy, err, make that “SPAMMY” banks
That’s it. See you at next year’s SPAM JAM!

Related Links:
• Waikiki 2007 Spam Jam - The Tasty Island
• SpamJamHawaii.com

6 comments
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May 6, 2008 at 4:17 am
PattyB
The Spam pizza looks wrong, wrong, wrong. And the Hawaiian Spam pizza looks even more wrong. Seems like they could have finessed both of these a bit more by using smaller bits of Spam and by distributing the toppings. Where is the pride?
May 6, 2008 at 5:48 am
Molly
Rant to follow, look away if you must! I eagerly await the Spam Jam each year, but this year I made a bad choice by going with the place offering steak & garlic shrimp for 9 bucks! (It wasn’t one featured in any of your pictures) When I picked up the container, it felt oddly light and I thought: “Uh Oh!” When I opened it up at home there were only 3 shrimp & a baby shrimp, an okay amount of steak, only one scoop of rice, and a scant amount of salad. It was disappointing in both taste and amount of food. Shoulda gone with one of the spam entrees!
May 6, 2008 at 6:20 am
kat
never been to this event, though it looks delicious!
May 7, 2008 at 1:09 am
jodi
uhm…that’s like ordering the lone baked potato at a deli. You shoulda got the spam musubi. Char-grilled marks? That’s impressive as anything. The spam burger from the Shack–maybe it just tasted good, because it looks really strange. I kept thinking….spam pork hash? On a bun?
virtual tip>>>$$$$
May 8, 2008 at 1:34 am
RobynT
hrm… i think i only like spam in musubi. or maybe–MAYBE–chopped up in fried noodles.
also, am i the only one who thinks that if you have to advertise something as classy, it’s probably not?
May 8, 2008 at 10:01 pm
golfnutn8
It was my first time to the event and it was pretty fun. Spent most of my time working with the crew from Pressure Cook with Ralph Pagano (MOJO HD). He was “hired” by the guys from The Shack as part of the Hawaii episode which will air in December. Fun times had by all and Ralph’s creation that day was pretty darn good too.