Robert Ji-Song Ku
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824839215
- eISBN:
- 9780824869465
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824839215.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter discusses the place of SPAM in today's culinary cultures of the Pacific, Pacific Rim, and among many Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. SPAM, one of the major dubious ...
More
This chapter discusses the place of SPAM in today's culinary cultures of the Pacific, Pacific Rim, and among many Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. SPAM, one of the major dubious foods in America, is widely regarded as vulgar, tacky, and farcical. Some claim that SPAM is an affront to the very idea of real or whole food, but others believe it to embody discrete indigenous cuisines or, alternatively, a luxury commodity—or simultaneously both. This chapter first considers how SPAM came to be a beloved comfort food in Hawaii and a status symbol in the Philippines and South Korea. It then examines the role of food preservation—particularly the method of canning food—in the history of seafaring and the modern military. It also explores how SPAM figures in popular culture and how it became America's substitute meat of choice and gained international fame. Finally, it looks at a number of SPAM recipes in Hawaii, including “Chili, SPAM, and Egg Rice Bowl.”Less
This chapter discusses the place of SPAM in today's culinary cultures of the Pacific, Pacific Rim, and among many Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. SPAM, one of the major dubious foods in America, is widely regarded as vulgar, tacky, and farcical. Some claim that SPAM is an affront to the very idea of real or whole food, but others believe it to embody discrete indigenous cuisines or, alternatively, a luxury commodity—or simultaneously both. This chapter first considers how SPAM came to be a beloved comfort food in Hawaii and a status symbol in the Philippines and South Korea. It then examines the role of food preservation—particularly the method of canning food—in the history of seafaring and the modern military. It also explores how SPAM figures in popular culture and how it became America's substitute meat of choice and gained international fame. Finally, it looks at a number of SPAM recipes in Hawaii, including “Chili, SPAM, and Egg Rice Bowl.”
Robert Ji-Song Ku
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824839215
- eISBN:
- 9780824869465
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824839215.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
California roll, Chinese take-out, American-made kimchi, dogmeat, monosodium glutamate, SPAM—all are examples of what this book calls “dubious” foods. Strongly associated with Asian and Asian ...
More
California roll, Chinese take-out, American-made kimchi, dogmeat, monosodium glutamate, SPAM—all are examples of what this book calls “dubious” foods. Strongly associated with Asian and Asian American gastronomy, they are commonly understood as ersatz, depraved, or simply bad. This book contends that these foods share a spiritual fellowship with Asians in the United States in that the Asian presence, be it culinary or corporeal, is often considered watered-down, counterfeit, or debased manifestations of the “real thing.” The American expression of Asianness is defined as doubly inauthentic—as insufficiently Asian and unreliably American when measured against a largely ideological if not entirely political standard of authentic Asia and America. By exploring the other side of what is prescriptively understood as proper Asian gastronomy, the book suggests that Asian cultural expressions occurring in places such as Los Angeles, Honolulu, New York City, and even Baton Rouge are no less critical to understanding the meaning of Asian food—and, by extension, Asian people—than culinary expressions that took place in Tokyo, Seoul, and Shanghai centuries ago. In critically considering the impure and hybridized with serious and often whimsical intent, the book argues that while the notion of cultural authenticity is troubled, troubling, and troublesome, the apocryphal is not necessarily a bad thing: The dubious, as in the case of Asian foods, can be and is often quite delicious.Less
California roll, Chinese take-out, American-made kimchi, dogmeat, monosodium glutamate, SPAM—all are examples of what this book calls “dubious” foods. Strongly associated with Asian and Asian American gastronomy, they are commonly understood as ersatz, depraved, or simply bad. This book contends that these foods share a spiritual fellowship with Asians in the United States in that the Asian presence, be it culinary or corporeal, is often considered watered-down, counterfeit, or debased manifestations of the “real thing.” The American expression of Asianness is defined as doubly inauthentic—as insufficiently Asian and unreliably American when measured against a largely ideological if not entirely political standard of authentic Asia and America. By exploring the other side of what is prescriptively understood as proper Asian gastronomy, the book suggests that Asian cultural expressions occurring in places such as Los Angeles, Honolulu, New York City, and even Baton Rouge are no less critical to understanding the meaning of Asian food—and, by extension, Asian people—than culinary expressions that took place in Tokyo, Seoul, and Shanghai centuries ago. In critically considering the impure and hybridized with serious and often whimsical intent, the book argues that while the notion of cultural authenticity is troubled, troubling, and troublesome, the apocryphal is not necessarily a bad thing: The dubious, as in the case of Asian foods, can be and is often quite delicious.
Robert Ji-Song Ku
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824839215
- eISBN:
- 9780824869465
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824839215.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This book explores the cultural politics of eating what it calls dubious Asian foods in the United States. Using a wide range of narrative strategies, it considers how dubious Asian foods are ...
More
This book explores the cultural politics of eating what it calls dubious Asian foods in the United States. Using a wide range of narrative strategies, it considers how dubious Asian foods are manifested, consumed, discussed, and contested in the United States. Six specific edible subjects, each of which is strongly associated with Asians and Asian Americans, are examined: the California roll, take-out Chinese food, monosodium glutamate (MSG), dogmeat, factory-made American kimchi, and the canned meat product called SPAM. The book challenges the absolutism of authentic Asian gastronomy and argues that authenticity is both an illusion and a trap. It suggests that the ambivalence over eating Asian in the United States is emblematic of a general tendency, and a considerable irony, in American immigrant history.Less
This book explores the cultural politics of eating what it calls dubious Asian foods in the United States. Using a wide range of narrative strategies, it considers how dubious Asian foods are manifested, consumed, discussed, and contested in the United States. Six specific edible subjects, each of which is strongly associated with Asians and Asian Americans, are examined: the California roll, take-out Chinese food, monosodium glutamate (MSG), dogmeat, factory-made American kimchi, and the canned meat product called SPAM. The book challenges the absolutism of authentic Asian gastronomy and argues that authenticity is both an illusion and a trap. It suggests that the ambivalence over eating Asian in the United States is emblematic of a general tendency, and a considerable irony, in American immigrant history.
