Snow Cones and Spam

It didn't take Scott long to immerse himself in the culinary culture of Hawai'i. He eats Spam musubi, a local favorite, for lunch several times a week. Me...well, I'm going to have to work on suppressing my gag reflex before I give the dreaded meat-from-a-can a try. For some reason I cannot fathom, Spam is very popular here, and Spam musubi is apparently the preferred way of serving it.

What is Spam musubi? As far as I can tell, it's a slice of spam topped with sticky rice and wrapped in seaweed. I'm not much of a seaweed fan, either. I'm one of those redneck non-sushi eaters; I don't even like California rolls.

So, since that delicacy is out, a certain 3-year-old and I gave another Hawaiian specialty a try today, one that is much more appealing: shave ice. Shave ice is similar to the snow cones I slurped up as a kid, but better! They put ice cream at the bottom (I had to skip that portion this time--still not cheating on the no-dairy diet), the ice is really shaved to a powder, so it is oh-so-smooth and not at all crunchy, and supposedly, many of the shave ice stands here make their own syrup. Yum! Those poor kids on the mainland (who walk a mile to purchase a bubble gum flavored snow cone from a rickety stand...not that I ever did that) just don't know what they are missing!