JOBO’s Goteborg Musubi from The Poke Bowl at Ward Farmers Market (on Oahu)
In a recent write-up on The Poke Bowl in Ward Farmers Market, a glimpse was shown of this unique treat from Kauai they call JOBO’S Goteborg Musubi. Intent on trying this thing out, I stopped by there early this morning and picked up several packs to take to work.
See, this regional specialty – and the Goteborg sausage itself - is something many of us “Oahuans” aren’t familiar with. At least everyone within our group (of Oahuans) concur to have never come across it before.
My girlfriend’s mother was born and raised on Kauai (Koloa), and she certainly remembers growing up eating Goteborg sausage and these musubi offspring.
The question remains why Goteborg, up to now, was just a “Kauai thing”, and never spread across the island chain sooner.
What’s just as intriguing is the various nicknames this musubi is given, depending who and where you’re getting it from.
If you’re from Kauai, it’d be great if you could chime-in and comment about your experiences, such as: where’s your favorite place on the garden isle to get it; nicknames you know of; history behind it, etc..
As you see by the sign card and label on the container, The Poke Bowl guys call identify theirs as JOBO’s..
4-piece Jobo’s (Goteborg Musubi), $2.50 from The Poke Bowl
Turns out, as Derek, co-owner of The Poke Bowl explains (which I have some explaining on that a bit later), “JOBO” is the name of their friend from Kauai who recommended they offer this in their shop. Hence the name “JOBO’s Goteborg Musubi”. So there you have it. A nickname to the dish given strictly by an inner-circle referral.
There’s a couple other nicknames for it out there, such as a user on Yelp who says the Goteborg Musubi are also known as “UFOs” on Kauai. I also found a cooking demonstration on iamHawaii.com from George Yoshida’s Kitchen, who calls them “Flying Saucers”. These two names obviously based on the disc-like, inverted concave shape of the sausage on the bottom, with the rice on top resembling a “glowing orb”. Perhaps they’ll come out with a sci-fi movie titled “Attack of the Jobo’s”. lol
Doing some online research on Goteborg (also known as Swedish Sausage), it’s explained as being a type of summer sausage (dry and doesn’t need refrigeration) made using 75% beef and 25% pork, prepared by double-grind method, then cured and flash heat-smoked.
When you heat up Goteborg for serving, just like Portuguese and most other large-diameter sausages, it tightens up and becomes concave, as seen here…
Those folks of Kauai must have looked it and thought, what else to put in that “bowl” but a ball of rice with Furikake on top! Simply brilliant. Perhaps the precursor to SPAM Musubi?!
Here I am holding one, showing a cross-bite section…
My (adult-size) hand helps provide a scale to its actual size, which is about 2″ in diameter across the sausage base, making the whole thing just a tad bigger than a regulation golf ball. As you see its construction is very simple, with just a thin slice of Goteborg sausage as a base, and warm (to room temp’) white (I think unsalted) rice balled on top, then topped with a light sprinkle of Furikake. Easy.
Gotta’ add, The Poke Bowl knows how to cook rice right, with just enough stick, without being too soggy or dry. Perfect musubi rice. I’m sure even Manabu san would agree.
The Poke Bowl sells them in packs of 4 for just $2.50…
Good deal.
These really are fantastic and a refreshing change over the heavily-exploited SPAM Musubi (I’m partially to blame for that!).
The cup shape of the sausage base makes them easy to hold and bite into.
Upon tasting it, the texture and flavor of the Goteborg sorta’ reminds me of Salami. The smoke flavor is very subtle, yet enough to punch out the more pronounced beef (vs. pork) flavor it has. That subtle smokiness also gives it a breakfast sausage-like quality, having you think perhaps some eggs on the side would be a winner! There’s a slight hint of spices in the sausage that are hard to pinpoint (garlic, mustard powder and nutmeg?), yet of course do add character to it.
The (tolerable) saltiness of the Goteborg makes just a thin slice more than adequate to flavor the bulk of musubi rice topped on it here, which is portioned perfectly for bite-to-bite balance. Top that with the furikake (Nori/Goma/Bonito) for the finishing touch and you have one tasty, all-in-on package. Everyone in our office really liked it, with 3 and 4-SPAM musubi ratings across the board, all noting those attributes described above.
Not stopping there, Derek offered me a sample of their Shoyu Ahi Limu Poke today, made using their improved grade previously frozen Ahi from Tropic’s…
The Poke Bowl – Shoyu Ahi Limu Poke (improved grade previously frozen from Tropic’s)
How is it? If Derek didn’t tell me it was previously frozen, I’d swear it came straight from the auction block. Honestly, “Like buttah”! Gooooood stuff. And this is the batch they’ll be serving on their Poke Bowls from now on, while supplies last. Nice. The FRESH stuff (priced a few dollars higher) is also available as a Poke Bowl upgrade, or for poke-only purchase.
Having this awesome Poke, along with 2 packs of JOBO’s Goteborg Musubi on the same table, I could NOT resist making what I’ll call the “Goteborg Shoyu Ahi Poke Bowl”…
A Tasty Island prototype – “Goteborg Shoyu Ahi Poke Bowl” (here’s a deconstructed top view)
Or you can all it “JOBO’s Ahi Poke Bowl”, or “Alien Surf ‘N Turf” (based on the UFO/Flying Saucer concept).
How was it? Very good! The somewhat ocean-flavored Limu (Ogo) mixed with the ahi was the only thing that was odd in contrast to the savory, earthy (subtly-smoked) sausage, so perhaps if you used the regular Shoyu Ahi Poke it would be even better. Still, the “buttery” texture of the improved quality frozen ahi made it almost melt into the rice as I bit into it, while its fresh taste accented by the mild shoyu-based marinade, when eaten along with the Goteborg actually worked. At least liked it. It LOOKS pretty good too, IMO. If you’re the experimental type, try this yourself and let us know what ya’ think!
It’s hard to believe Oahu has gone for so long without catching on to this Kauai classic. Yet I’m glad the good guys over at The Poke Bowl listened to their friend Jobo and finally introduced it to us. Whinnahz!
Kauai’s classic
Goteborg Musubi (a.k.a. Jobo’s/UFO/Flying Saucer)
from The Poke Bowl in Ward Farmers Market
The Tasty Island rating:
(4) Excellent. Worth another visit or purchase. (Winnahz!)
P.S. In my initial write-up on The Poke Bowl, I had mistaken (criss-crossed) Derek and Craig’s names. Gomenasai! The brother I spoke with (and have pictured with Tyrone (”Tunda”) is DEREK, while Craig is his brother who was mostly in the back kitchen. Derek and Craig thought it was kinda’ funny. I already fixed it in that posting.
34 comments
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October 22, 2008 at 2:44 am
Scott
I saw these on your post from The Poke Bowl. I called my brother in LA to ask him what it was. My dad used to make those from us when we were little and we’re from Oahu. I just thought it was one of those things that my family did and didn’t realize it was a Kauai thing. We didn’t use furikake but put a stripe of shoyu over the top. Reading this entry sure brought back lots of ono memories and made me hungry for that now! Your variation with the poke on top sure looks good too. Must be dinner time
Mahaloz !
October 22, 2008 at 3:01 am
Cari
When I saw these I immediately called my boyfriend who lives on kauai. He introduced goteborg to me when we first started dating and since then I have been bringing it back to oahu. During a recent visit to Marukai (kalihi store) you can find it there and it’s even cheaper than the prices I found on kauai at big save and star market
. Now i’ll have to visit the poke bowl and taste theirs! YUM!
October 22, 2008 at 3:30 am
Nathan
DAMN those musubi look ono! Now I’m craving one. Need to get to Kauai to try these out. Thanks for sharing.
October 22, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Keliki
Mmmm, poke on top of a musubi . I going try it NOW!
October 22, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Kaleonani
YUMMMM! Gotoberg sausage! Yup I’m from Kaua’i and i knwo this dish VERY well! as for places to get these on Kaua’i . . . well Ishihara market makes good ones, so does Lawai Menehune Food mart . . . actually just about every place that makes bento’s on Kaua’i makes these! They’re so easy to make! Just besure that when you buy the sausage from the store you ask if they can cut it for you so you get the perfect thickness.
October 22, 2008 at 9:04 pm
lance
The popularity of Gotoberg must have hit the extreme ends of the islands, as it’s very common on the Big Island. I grow up eating Gotoberg and I’m in my 50s. We usually make three small knife cuts on the circumference of the pieces so it wouldn’t curve up while frying. It ranked up there with spam, chorizo and vienna sausage with the musubi at the beach.
October 23, 2008 at 12:49 am
Lois
Oh my, this is too funny. I thought this was one of those odd concoctions my 84-year-old mom seems to dream up. What a shock to see it on your site. Yes, she is from Kauai; Koloa, no less, home of Sueoka’s market and snack shop. I must show her the poke-goteberg version. It looks fantastic.
October 23, 2008 at 3:19 am
RobynT
My dad is from Koloa too. I think I might’ve said this before but I’ve always had goteberg sausage with a cut in it so it looks like a pac-man. Never had it with rice on top. Only on the side. Maybe cuz my mom (not from Kauai) would prepare it.
October 23, 2008 at 3:43 am
kat
first time to hear about this, but if my 2nd cousin is making it on his show, then it has to be ono!!
October 23, 2008 at 5:03 am
Jenny
That Gotoberg musubi looks delicious and I can’ t get over the low price. so here’s my question: When you bite into it, does the sausage tear off easily with the rice, or do you have to tug at it a little. And is it a little greasy on the fingers?
Yes, I’m living vicariously, food-wise, through you now!
October 23, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Nate
That is a very cool looking dish. Thanks for the excellent writeup!
I like your “Alien Surf n Turf”! Funny that the limu in the poke didn’t match well with the musubi. I mean, they put furikake on it, so seaweed isn’t the problem. Maybe it’s fresh seaweed?
October 23, 2008 at 7:20 pm
pomai
Nate, glad you like the “Alien Surf ‘n Turf” concept. It wasn’t the musubi rice that the Limu (Ogo) didn’t match with, but the lightly smokey sausage that it sorta’ butt heads with. That sea-like flavor was the only element that didn’t match with the pronounced beef flavor of the sausage. Take that out, and I think this would be a knockout! That sweet onion on top really punched out the flavors, similar to my 5-SPAM Musubi Poke Bowl. Winnah.
Jenny, warning: living vicariously through the camera lens and written word on this blog sure puts me under a lot of pressure! To answer your question, biting through the thin slice of Goteborg at the base is similar in effort to how you would bite through thinly-sliced peperoni on a pizza. Exactly like that. Grease-wise, not really. It may look a bit greasy (shiny) in the photo, but to the fingers and palate, not an issue worth noting.
Lois, I think Sueko’s is where my girlfriend’s cousin bought this really nice looking Okazuya plate. They did it the REAL OLD SCHOOL way, putting the food items in a paper plate box with a wax paper liner, SANS the plate. Now THAT’s old school!
Robyn, with this musubi, the concave shape is really what makes it unique vs. having the Goteborg cut to stay flat. Koloa is a nice town, and conveniently located near Poipu beach and Lihue (for business).
Kat, you sure have a lot of ohana here in the islands! Seems many places I feature, you either know the owner or someone affiliated with the place. Nice to have them connections!
Lance, thanks for the info’ about Big Island having Goteborg sausage. I’ll ask my cousins up there if they’ve heard of it and/or this style of musubi.
Kaleolani, thanks for the 411 on more specific places to get it! Next time we fly out there, I’m making list of the names you folks are mentioning. It’ll be interesting to hear the opinion from the Kauai folks on The Poke Bowl’s (Oahu’s) take on it.
Keliki, we’d love to hear what you thought of Poke on a musubi. Make sure the poke you use is “like buttah” fresh. If it’s rubbery, it probably won’t work with the already glutenous texture of the rice.
Nathan, no need go Kauai fo’ get ‘em. The Poke Bowl sells them right here on Oahu in Ward Farmers Market.
Cari, I still have yet to check Marukai’s Ward Farmers Market location if they have the Goteborg. I shop there a lot, yet, while not specifically looking for it, don’t ever recall seeing it there. Only Lup Cheong, Portuguese, Chorizo, various Kukui and Redondo brand sausage varieties, but no Goteborg. Unless I’m looking in the wrong place.
Scott, as you see with my Goteborg Poke Bowl “Alien Surf ‘n Turf” concoction, I’m the experimental type. With that, when I get my hands on Goteborg Sausage, I’m gonna’ try a bunch of Goteborg Musubi variations.
One will have – instead of Furikake on top – a skinny (about 1/2″ wide) strip of nori wrapped around its girth vertically, ala SPAM Musubi style. I’m also trying one with a small ume on top, and another with Beni Shoga, as well as other various other tsukemeno toppings. Slider style!
October 24, 2008 at 8:24 am
A Maui Blog
HHHmmmm . yum! I love that first photo!
October 24, 2008 at 2:42 pm
RobynT
My husband is from Kamuela on the Big Island and says he never heard of Goteberg sausage. *shrug* Just trying to help narrow where on the Big Island. lol.
October 24, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Tripen Design
Haha Im a college boy here in Oregon and I have a lot of friends from Oahu. We always have Musubi Wednesday and I brought up Goteberg Musubis the other night and everyone just looked at me. Come to fine out no one that I know from Oahu knows what Goteberg is. I’m a Kauai boy, Kapaa born and raise and they have Goteberg and chicken plate lunches at the local Wailua shell gas station. OMG that’s the stop after a late night out on Friday night. They have it everywhere from bigsave to seven11! Haha next time i get a care package Goteberg will be in my next box. They really need to get this stuff out to all the islands so everyone can enjoy it!
October 24, 2008 at 4:14 pm
pomai
Tripen, well to reinforce Oahu’s non-awareness of Goteborg, I checked out Don Quijote (a.k.a. Daiei; a.k.a. Holiday Mart) yesterday, and no dice. And that supermarket is as multi-ethnic as it gets! Yet no Goteborg whatsoever. The customer service clerk didn’t even know what I was talking about. All they had was several varieties of summer sausage, salami and sliced prosciutto, plus the usual mega-selection of Portuguese sausages. But Goteborg was nowhere to be found. Try check the supermarkets in Oregon. I’m curious how the availability of it is up there.
One website explains that “Goteborg Sausage is popular with the Swedish and Norwegian trade”.
That said, I’m wondering if there’s some local business(es) or family (ies) with a Swedish/Norwegian connection on Kauai that is the founding root of its spread in popularity there.
Does the Kauai McDonald’s offer a Goteborg sausage, eggs and rice breakfast? If not, they should! By my first taste of it, I’d say this great as a breakfast sausage.
Robyn, glad you (via hubby) cleared that up.
Hey there Maui Blogger. Interesting site you got going on. Will browse around more later.
October 24, 2008 at 9:27 pm
ilikegrind
I eat the JOBOS at Poke Bowl kinda often for breakfast. I had it in Lilhue a few years back with eggs and rice…onos!. Loved the photos, made me hungry, I might go this weekend to eat it. I saw the whole Gotebuerg sausage at Marukai the other week. It’s a huge sausage in the meat section.
October 25, 2008 at 5:15 am
melorama
WOW, I’ve lived on Oahu for 36 years, and I’ve never heard of Goteberg Musubi!
It’s a good idea though. When I was a kid, I would do basically the same with pan-fried bologna (or sometimes, even uncooked bologna straight out of the package!), using the bologna as a “wrap” around cold rice. So yummy!
October 26, 2008 at 12:03 am
lance
Found it at Maurkai. Go figa, it’s made by hormel. Maybe, like spam, it was a 442nd infantry thing, as my dad was in the 442nd infantry. I asked 5 of the guys from Oahu and they never heard of Goteborg. One of the ladies said, “I heard of it. It’s a Kauai sausage”.
October 26, 2008 at 12:23 am
shar
Hi Pomai, I was just going to give you a goteborg sighting aka ufo ??? ..haha..if not for your blog I would not have taken a second glance. but there it was sitting in the refer at Times Aiea
Its just kitty corner mauka of the fresh meats. I was also surpirsed that it was a hormel product. Its sold by the pound, think it was around $7@ so each sausage was about $18 or so. Not cheap.
Wonder what makes this diff from say a summer sausage or other types ? hmmm…
are you planning to pu some soon and make some ?
enjoy
October 26, 2008 at 1:43 am
Cree
Wow, my mom is a Kauai girl and she didn’t know what this was! Sheez, hehe.. she must have moved away from Kauai (almost 50 years ago) before they ate it all the time….. or she was just “outta da loop” hehe…
BUT(!!!) I wanna visit da grams in the next few weeks, so I will have to try ‘um out… hehe.. from multiple places… like a taste test.. hee hee….
October 26, 2008 at 7:10 pm
pomai
ilikegrind and lance, I checked the Ward Farmers Market Marukai just a few days ago, and they didn’t carry it. But the meat buyer was on duty that day, who I spoke to, and he said the Dillingham location has it, as Shar indicated, is sold by the pound, making the whole thing up there in price. Thankfully the sausage is salty and very flavorful, so a thin slice is all that’s needed to make each musubi.
The meat buyer said they get the Hormel brand Goteborg Sausage from Hansen Distributors. He also mentioned others have come in and ask for it, to which he’ll consider stocking it at the WFM store.
Shar, thanks for the tip! I’ll check if TIMES in Kahala Mall has it.
Cree, howzit. Funny that not ALL “Kauaiians” have heard of it. Must really be a specialty you have to look out for in order to notice it. Folks who previously posted comments here dropped some names of places you can surely find Goteborg Musubi.
October 27, 2008 at 4:35 am
shar
Hello Pomai, Hope that you find your sausage
Just an idea you might use to make the “gotebis ” hmmm I can see the marketing team already.. haha ..got your gotebis !
Marukais 99cent store has these musubis molds that make golf ball sized musubis..these would be mighty fine to pop onto the sausage and save you time. Should you go into mass production !
enjoy
October 28, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Kaleonani
I’m not sure where you can purchase gotoberg sausage on O’ahu but i know KTA on the big island has it . . . i saw um ;o) and it was in an unusual place, i figured it would be in the deli or by the meats but it was by the bacon and breakfast stuff . . .
October 28, 2008 at 10:00 pm
pomai
Shar, and Kaleonani, I found the Hormel brand Goteborg sausage! As Shar mentioned, Times Supermarket indeed had it; in my case, I bought it at the Kahala location (Oahu). It’s $5.99/lb., making these MASSIVE meat logs on average about $20 each.
It was merchandised in the bottom bin, below the Portuguese sausages, near the block (bulk) luncheon meats and other specialty sausages, located along the left-side back wall of the store (near the dairy products).
I’ll be posting a “Goteborg Musubi Project” entry soon, sampling a variety of toppings, fillings and presentational ideas. Stay tuned!
October 29, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Chiemi
AHHH i was so excited to see your very extensive write up of goteburg musibi! ( wonderful writing by the way) I am a Kauai girl and now live in Montana and stumbled upon your site after searching for a place on line that sells goteburg. I just wanted to clue a few people in on the other various ways that this wonderful sausage can be prepared. I always loved goteburg cut up into small pieces and then added to an omlett, a great way to spice things up
also its great in fired rice, bacon, spam and goteburg are what i refer to as the “holy trinity” of fried rice meats! Hahah ok well there you have it, a couple more ways to add this wonderful sausage to your life, also I always cut it up in thirds and freeze it in aluminum foil, it freezes really well and then you don’t have to worry about a huge hunk of sausage taking up room in your fridge 
hope that inspires a few other islands to use goteburg, PS if anyone finds out how i can get it shipped to me please do respond, I am seriously missing one of my fav foods!!
November 1, 2008 at 5:48 pm
bugsy
I’m from Koloa too! Gotegurg and chorizo’s with a riceball wrapped in wax paper were our pocket bentos to adventure around Waita resovoir and falls, blue gill and bass were plentiful back then (60’s), the pigpens had the narliest of bait worms!!! Pomai you rock!
December 4, 2008 at 2:43 am
Charlie
When I grew up on Kauai,my late parents bought goteborg sausage from
Ishihara Market back in the mid 50’s. We ate it with eggs/rice or with musubi. I used to bring it back to the mainland. Got it as gift (miyagay) from relatives. Marukai -Gardena carries this sausage. Bruddah’s restaurant in Gardena serves goteborg on their menu for breakfast,lunch or dinner.
December 5, 2008 at 7:13 pm
gu
Goteborg sausages make great omiyage from Kauai.
Buyer beware…watch what you ask for.
Goteborg topped with rice are called UFOs…if you ask for flying saucers, you will get a totally different item.
Ask any local Kauaian.
December 21, 2008 at 11:46 am
boo
I get em at Hanalima Baking, come 4 to a plate. And yes, flying saucers are totally different than these.
December 22, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Sue Watase
Is there place where this sausage can be purchased in Southern California?
December 22, 2008 at 7:13 pm
pomai
Sue, if you check out the follow-up entry to this post….
http://tastyisland.wordpress.com/2008/11/02/the-goteborg-musubi-project/?referer=sphere_related_content/
…you’ll see the Goteborg Sausage used to make these Musubi are made by HORMEL (the SPAM folks, located in Minnesota), which if we can get here in Hawaii, surely must be available in supermarkets in Cali’.
December 23, 2008 at 6:31 pm
toshio
shhhhh…now the foodland will be out of goteborg. u can only buy this in hawaii. we have to cut in 1/4s freeze it and bring back with us to the mainland. we dont need this blowing up like spam musubi.
April 6, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Mill St Earl/
I’m from Aurora, Colorado, been living here since 1967, formally from Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. When I go back for a visit, we still feast on spam musubi and fried ahi and aku belly for lunch. We don’t make poke’ with ogo and shoyu, we still use liopua limu and kukui nuts with salt and japanese chili pepper. Don’t know where Koloa, Kapaa, or Lihui is but, they must have been keepinga secret of their musubi for a long time. Is using a slice of salami just as equal?