Spam is something which lots of people in Hawaii love to eat. In total the people here eat about 7 million cans of Spam per year, which would be more than 4.5 cans per resident, the biggest number of the whole US, and possibly even the rest of the world. It is even so that Hawaii knows an annual festival called ‘Spam Jam‘, with Spam as the main piece of interest.

So, Michelle, Isabella and I went yesterday to the Spam Jam 2010 in Waikiki, to see what it is all about. The event took place from 4 pm to 10 pm, we arrived there around 6 pm. I can tell you it was quite busy, there was an estimate of 20,000 people last year and I think they have reached the same amount of visitors again, it was pretty busy.

The event was held in Waikiki, on Kalakaua Avenue, which is like the main street of Waikiki. The road was partly closed for all traffic as there were all kinds of booths on the road where people could eat all kinds of dishes with Spam as the main ingredient, and there were also a few stages where they had some bands perform.

So what kind of dishes with Spam did they have? Think about stuff such as Spam Hotdogs, Volcano Nachos with Spam Chili, Spam and Kalua Pork Enchiladas, Spicy Spam Wraps, Spam noodles, Fried Rice Spam and this list continues on and on. There was really a lot for sale.

It was fun to be at the Spam Jam, but there sure was a lot of people.. I think they would be better off if they held it in a park instead as it is just too crowded for a public road (plus, traffic around that area was terrible, it is supposed to be one of the busier streets on Oahu).

I recently wrote in a message that I was eating a ‘bitterbal’ (Dutch for bitterball, some kind of fried meatballs) and, you might think, is that something typical Dutch? And then I have to admit that this is indeed the case and, no, they do not sell them here, I had to make them myself.

We cannot import any meat here, mostly because of things like the mad cows disease and that kind of diseases so in order to eat some typical Dutch things, I sometimes need to help myself and make it myself.

So, like said, I was eating that bitterbal while I was writing a new blogpost. I made these together with a couple of ‘kroketten’ (another Dutch snack). Unfortunately they did not taste as good as they taste in the Netherlands but, never the less, it still was very nice and Michelle and her mom agreed on that. I also made some pictures of these bitterballs and kroketten:

The first picture is of the krokettten, ready to get fried. The second one is of the bitterballs and on the last picture you can see the fried kroketten (in a bit vague photo but oh well, you can get an impression ).

Something else that I made some time ago was ’stijve rijst met suiker’ (stiff rice with sugar). This wasn’t so easy as in the Netherlands as we can buy ‘broken rice’ over there and over here we mostly only get the standard sticky rice (but in different flavors lol) but oh well, if you let the rice cook long enough, you will be able to break the rice and then you will be able to make stiff rice with sugar, which we did a while ago. Michelle and her mom also liked this food.. it is a bit too bad that Michelle is lactose intolerant, which basically means that she has a hard time with certain milk products and, unfortunately for her, the stiff rice with sugar contains a lot of milk. So, yep, she had to go to the bathroom a few times.

And what to think about ‘tompoezen’ (I am unsure if there is a translation for it, it is a sweet Dutch pastry with pudding and a glaced topping)? I have made these a while ago also haha. Ok I did not completely make them myself, my mom sent me some things which I could use to make the tompoezen but still, they were delicious and, indeed, Michelle and her mom also liked these a lot.

I hope to make ‘oliebollen’ soon for new years eve (oliebollen are another Dutch pastry, the main part is like what you find in doughnuts but sometimes there are raisins added to it (and, lol, doughnuts are actually brought to the US by Dutch settlers and made into that from oliebollen). I am curious what they will find of those

As you can see, I haven’t been in the Netherlands for a bit now but I can’t really say goodbye to the Dutch food.. I expect to make much more Dutch dishes later on also.. whenever I made a few more, I’ll probably blog about it