This Ahi Limu Poke dish was part of our Ultimate Backyard Lu’au that we threw a few weeks back. Ahi or yellowfin tuna, is one of Hawai’i’s favorite fishes to eat. We like them in sashimi (especially around New Years), smoked, or in poke (“POH-kay”). Limu is the Hawaiian word for algae or seaweed. Poke simply means “cut into small pieces” in Hawaiian. Ahi Limu Poke, then, calls for ahi to be cut into small pieces, then mixed with seaweed and other seasonings.
In our previous post on Secrets to Making Spam Musubi, I talked about the type of rice (short grain) and type of Spam (regular, NOT low-fat) to use in making this perfect Hawaiian meal-to-go. Now I want to talk about the 3rd major ingredient: the nori (Japanese dried seaweed).
In the Asian aisle of your local supermarket, you will probably be able to find Japanese nori for making sushi. It is extremely flat, slightly bitter to the taste, and tough like construction paper. This type of nori may be great for making sushi, but it is not so good for Spam musubi.
Let me tell you why.
Spam musubi is one of those quintessential Hawaiian foods, like kalua pig and lomi lomi salmon. Nowhere else in the world has something quite like the Spam musubi. Based on the Japanese snack food called onigiri, the Hawaiians melded it with their love of Spam to form this perfect, one-handed meal-to-go.
I love Spam musubi. So do a lot of our friends, though they (like most Mainlanders) started out with an aversion to Spam. “SPAM?!” they’d exclaim as they crinkled their noses, “why would anyone ever want to eat SPAM?
Continue reading Secrets to Making Spam Musubi