Pacific Rim

Being that the iconic SPAM Musubi symbolizes the ratings here on The Tasty Island, we can’t miss the happenings at the Waikiki Spam Jam. This time being their 8th annual event, taking place this past weekend on Saturday, April 24, 2010 from 4pm to 10pm on the blocked-off street of Kalakaua avenue in Waikiki.

Following is a pictorial walkthrough of this year’s Spam Jam festivities, along with descriptions and commentary wherever applicable to further immerse you in the experience. Because an “experience” is really what it is at a Waikiki Spam Jam. Enjoy!

Chibo’s Spam Okonomiyaki…

Chibo’s Spam Yakisoba…

Seafood Village’s Spam Siu Mai (steamed potstickers)…

Seafood Village’s Spam Manapua (steamed bun)…

Seafood Village’s Spam Manapua in another style…

Seafood Village Spam Dim Sum Combo…

Rumfire’s Kalua Pig Enchiladas with Ancho Chile Sauce, Spam Maui Onion Salsa and Queso Fondido, and Fiesta Spam Crab Dip…

Rumfire’s Fiesta Spam Crab Dip…

Rumfire staff crankin’ out Spam Crab Dip for the masses…

Here’s quite the “medley” of foods from the earth: asparagus, red bell peppers, roasted peppers, Hamakua Alii mushrooms, rosemary and pineapple. While I’m not sure what yet, surely a very tasty dish could be created using all of these ingredients!…

Spam Tuesdays at Rumfire!…

Volcano Nachos with Spam Chili

Spam Chili with Rice

Jimmy Buffet’s Spam Fusion Fajitas…

Gordon Biersch’ Guava Mango BBQ Spam Sliders topped with Crispy Onion Rings…

Gordon Biersch’ Sicilian Spam & Basil Pizza Bread…

Gordon Biersch’ Spam Pancit…

Gordon Biersch’ Spam Gau Gee (fried wonton) with sweet, spicy chili dipping sauce…

Gordon Biersch’ awesome Garlic Fries…

Doraku Spam Musubi…

That was literally rated 3 SPAM Musubi, and these are literally rated 5 SPAM Musubi!…

Doraku Spam Jam Roll…

Doraku keeps their grilled Spam happy by smothering them with a Teriyaki glaze…

Duke’s Spam Fried Rice…

Duke’s & Hula Grill’s Spam moco ($6 for white rice, $8 for fried rice) has two slices of Spam topped with a scrambled egg over rice, surrounded by their signature brandy shiitake cream sauce and topped with crispy onion strings…

Duke’s & Hula Grill’s Spam Moco in stages of construction…

I forgot to ask why this one got the katsu treatment…

Duke’s always incredible and very popular “Hula Pie”…

Now you are thinking what I’m thinking, right? Notice there’s macadamia nuts on there. Well, being this is a Spam Jam, they should have swapped the plain roasted Mac Nuts with SPAM Macadamia Nuts! How you figgah?

Coconut Willy’s Fried Noodles with Spam…

Coconut Willy’s Garlic Shrimp with Spiral Fries…

Cheeseburger’s Combo Spam and Cheeseburger Babies…

Cheeseburger Babies…

Shack Waikiki’s Hawaiian Spam Burger made with an all-beef burger slider patty topped with hickory-smoked Spam and a pineapple tomato relish. Accompanying it is a Hawaiian-style potato macaroni salad, mixed with hickory smoked Spam, eggs, green onion, mayonnaise and mustard…

Shack Waikiki’s Spam dog ($3) smothered in Spam chili, pineapple tomato relish, cheese and onions…

The beautiful and lovely Shack ladies…

The Shack owner Brendan workin’ the booth…

What, no Spam flavor? It would go great with pineapple! lol

I would fill my bathtub up with one of these and soak in it…

At the Hawaii Food Bank booth…

Spam Macadamia Nut samples galore…

Hamakua Plantations were handing out coupons that would donate 50% of the proceeds to the Hawaii Food Bank. Fantastic.

The owner and president of Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company, Richard Schnitzler…

It was a great honor and pleasure to hear from Richard that sales of their Spam Macadamia Nuts are doing very well due in part to the thorough review I did of the product on this blog. He even credits an account his company picked up with Target thanks to their corporate folks on the mainland seeing the review I did, which was passed on by the corporate folks at Hormel. Wow! Some “big wigs” checkin’ out this site!

At least I know my blog is doing its part in helping to promote Hawaii’s food and products industry with proof positive results.

This Week: Spam in every flavor…

For some reason, anything with “SPAM” on it doesn’t look right in front of an Apple computer store lol…

I wonder if you wear this shirt into the Apple store, would they kick you out? Or would an “Anti-virus” alarm pop-up on any computer you touch? lol

There were a few non-Spam related crafts vendors there selling their wares as well…

A different vendor (not Simply Wood Studios)…

Folks Spam in up for the camera with “Spammy” (or whatever their mascot’s name is)…

Pork Butt lol…

This poor kid was absolutely HORRIFIED by “Spammy” lol…

The revolving restaurant with the lights in the background is Top of Waikiki.

“Spammy” #1 heads into the Outrigger on the beach…

Here’s a full pallet of SPAM, which includes 100 cases at 12 per case, totaling 1,200 cans…

The closing band on stage at the First Hawaiian Bank stage was Journey Tribute band named ‘Separate Ways’, which they were SMOKIN’!…

These guys sound SPOT-ON like Journey. It was really like a free Journey concert at the Spam Jam! And everyone got totally into it.

The lead singer certainly gives Journey’s current frontman, Arnel Pineda a run for the money. He even looks kinda’ like Steve Perry. And the guitarist played Neal Schon’s signature rhythm and leads to perfection with plenty of “feel”, and not just sounding like a “copy”. If you hear of Separate Ways performing and you’re a Journey fan, I highly recommend you check their concert out.

Earlier on that evening at the Waikiki Beach Walk stage, various hula performances took place…