Spam Musubi Pie
A savory recipe from Stacey Mei Yan Fong, excerpted from Humble Pie
Cake friends,
How do you feel about pie for dinner? More specifically, Spam Musubi pie with a flaky nori crust, layers of sticky sushi rice, sweet soy-glazed Spam, and a generous squiggle of Kewpie mayo to finish.
“If apple pie is a classic all-American dish, this Spam Musubi pie is the Asian American Pacific Islander equivalent,” writes Stacey Mei Yan Fong about her recipe in Humble Pie. Stacey, the author of the wonderful new cookbook 50 Pies 50 States, contributed her Spam Musubi pie recipe for our “Desperation Pies” package which explores how the humble pastry has been adapted during times of scarcity. Today, we’re excited to share her recipe from the issue here.
Photo by Adam Friedlander, Food styling by Stacey Mei Yan Fong and Pearl Jones, Prop Styling by Julia Rose. Published in Humble Pie.
“Spam was created in Minnesota toward the end of the Great Depression to address the urgent need for inexpensive meat products while food was scarce,” Stacey writes. “The pre-cooked, canned pork product followed the American military throughout the Pacific during World War II, becoming a symbol of American might, and—as our communities incorporated it into dishes like Hawaii’s musubi and Korean budae jjigae—AAPI resilience. This recipe celebrates and continues that evolution with a sushi-rice filling and nori crust.”
Read on for the recipe. If you make it, tag us on Instagram: @cake_zine and @50pies50states
Want more pie recipes? Check out our new summer issue, Humble Pie, available now.
Sweet treats:
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Go: Cake Zine co-founder Aliza Abarbanel is hosting a live podcast for This Is TASTE with cake queens Natasha Pickowicz and Claire Saffitz at Rizzoli Books in NYC next Thursday, 8/17. More details and a free RSVP here.
Read: Cake, a short story by Laurie Stone in Dirt.