So after seeing my Asian Classic Dish thread get a lot of attention, I noticed that people recommended using the "fake Spam" instead of the real thing. So I decided to go to Safeway and buy every single type of Spam/Luncheon Meat and try them all out to see which one was the best for the noodles/spam/egg dish.

Here's what Safeway had available for me:



The 5 brands are, Holiday, Safeway, Authentic Spam, Klik, and Prem. First thing I noticed is with the exception of Spam, the other 4 brands use the same "key" system to unlock the tasty mystery meat.





Looking at who makes them shows that 3 of those, Klik, Prem and Holiday, are made by Maple Leaf.



The Safeway brand was "Prepared for Safeway"... if I had to guess I'd say it's made by Maple Leaf as well.



Spam of course was made by Hormel, the original inventors of such a great product.

First up for review was Klik. Made by Maple Leaf Foods, this product comes from their Brandon, Manitoba slaughterhouse. It shares the same ingredients as competing Spam products, but with different ratios of various parts of pork.



The key system for opening the can should be very recognizable to our asian readers.



Compared to Spam, Klik has a lot more solidified oil/fat covering the brick of meat.



The texture and consistency was great, making it very easy to cut equal thickness slices with a simple steak knife.



As you can see from cooking, there's a lot of oil... after a few minutes, the meat was literally bathing in oil. There is an advantage to this... Klik doesn't burn as easily as Spam and cooks much easier. It also smokes and smells a lot less, so for folks like me that hate my house smelling "Asian", Klik is great.



Klik also cooks very fast. As you can see, the meat turns red very quickly. These ones were flipped only 90 seconds into the pan.



After 5 mins (and 2 flips), the meat is nice and red, and as mentioned earlier, bathing in its own oil.



The oil is perfect for making "wallet egg". Hopefully, as my reviews go on, my egg making skills improve .



The finished product. Klik tasted a tad bland, not as much flavour as Spam. The nice thing is that there's a lot less aftertaste than Spam. My burps don't taste nasty, but it could use more taste to enhance the flavour of the noodles.

My rating, out of 5:



Pros: No smoke, light smell when cooking, lots of oil for wallet egg, little or no aftertaste.

Cons: A bit bland.

Next up is Prem. Like Klik, it's made by Maple Leaf Foods out of Brandon, Manitoba.



Again, it's opened with a key.



Compared to Klik, the color is a lot lighter, even though it shares the same ingredients. Visually, there's a bit less oil than Klik.



Another one that's easy to cut with a simple steak knife.



Just as I thought, there's a lot less oil than Klik.



Prem cooks really fast, so ensure you flip them quickly. It's a bit more "red" once cooked than Klik, even though it's lighter before cooking.



Like I said, it cooks fast, so it burns really quick. Flip them often! If you see smoke, it's burning already.



The leftover oil was perfectly enough for the wallet egg. Not much oil left after cooking. My egg's looking better!



Finished product! No aftertaste, very little asian smell in the house after cooking, and it tasted great. Very similar to the taste of chinese spam that I've eaten growing up.

My rating, out of 5:



Pros: No aftertaste, great taste with noodles, No smoke (unless burning), perfect amounts of oil.

Cons: Burns easily

I would've given it a 5 thumbs up rating, but I want to save that in case there's a better one in an upcoming review.

Next, Holiday... yet another Maple Leaf product out of Brandon, Manitoba. These guys have the Spam market cornered! Not sure if that's something to brag about...



The classic key system again. First thing I noticed, as soon as the key is turned, the smell attacked my nasal cavaties. I kid you not, but it smells just like a can of cat food. That's not gonna stop me though!



Looks a lot like Klik, except with very little oil. A lot less marbly than Klik too.



The texture is very jellowey. Now I'm starting to worry a bit. Weird texture, smells like cat food. Did I get the right can???



Hrm, no oil at all. Right after I put it on the pan, it started smoking.



I was worried about burning with so little oil, so I flipped it quite often. Doesn't get very red, so it's hard to find the line between fully cooked and burning.



Oh man, look at the one on the left... it's bubbling up! Reminds me of the dude in Robocop that got dropped in nuclear waste... this can't be good haha.



Thanks to the lack of oil, it totally fucked my egg up. My expectations at this point is VERY low.



Finished product! Like going to a movie with low expectations, you always come up a winner. The taste was very balanced, complemented the noodles well. Too much of something is bad enough, too much of nothing is just as tough, and Holiday has got it just right when it came to oil content. Just remember to add oil for the egg, there's not enough at all to fry an egg.

Personally, I would prefer a saltier taste, but I could see this as a great "entry level spam" for folks that want to try it out. There is zero aftertaste with this product. The house smelled great, as long as the smoke/burn was controlled. The lack of oil helped here.

My rating, out of 5:



Pros: Zero aftertaste, well balanced taste, zero oil.

Cons: Could be a tad saltier. My poor egg!!!

After a long hiatus, I've finally decided to review the remaining versions of Spam. So here she is, the original Spam from Hormel. This is the SPAMALOT collectors edition, what a pretty looking container.

These guys invented this miracle meat, so I have high hopes for this brand. They are so dedicated to their meat, that they have a Spam museum in Austin, Minnesota. I actually drove by there when I picked up my M3 from the states, without knowing the museum was there. I'm planning my next roadtrip around this destination.

Spam helped the USA in World War 2, most of the soldiers needed food that was easily transportable, and by 1945 65% of the sales of Spam went to the US Government! Once the war was over, the leftover spam was given to the people of where the US bases resided, which led Asians to enjoy this great food and make it a staple of their home cooking. Even the people of Hawaii got to enjoy this food, so much so that even today you can order Spam and Eggs for breakfast at McDonalds in Hawaii.

Enough of a history lesson... here we go!



I'm not sure if this is a patented system or not, but none of the competitors use this system. It's opened up at the top like a can of tuna. You then have to turn it upside down, push each side gently while the meat slips out of the box. Wow, that sounded porno.



A nice marbly slab of meat, with very little oil. Surprising, since it slipped out of the container fairly easily.



Very easy to cut, nice solid slab of meat. Not flimsy like the other brands such as Holiday.



The perfect amount of oil from the meat. Very light amounts of smoke.



First flip looks good. Light smoke, smells great.



After a few more flips, I realized how it burns fairly easily on high heat, so I had to flip it very often. Even then, I got it to burn slightly.



It's been a while since I cooked an egg, so ya, my skills have deterorated completely! There was a generous amount of oil (enough to cook 2 eggs) so it was pretty much perfect.



Done! Welcome back!

The taste was a tinge on the salty side, but after dipping in the soup, it washed a bit of it off and the taste was very well balanced. There was no aftertaste... it's been an hour now, and I've burped a few times too and it tastes clean lol.

My biggest complaint was the amount of smoking. I didn't realize it, but it smoked quite a bit and my whole house smells asian now. Not a big fan of that, I hate how asian houses smell lol.

My rating, out of 5:



Pros: Zero aftertaste, almost perfectly balanced taste, perfect amounts of oil.

Cons: My house smells asian. So do I. I need a shower.

Safeway's version will be reviewed soon.

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You amaze me once again Rage2....you deserve the James Beard award

If u guys have any other brands you'd like me to try, lemme know where to get it, or drop a can off at my house! haha.

Review some of the Chinese brands, if you have the balls.

I tried finding some chinese brands at that shop beside Sun's BBQ but couldn't find it. I'm not a fob no more, so if you can find some, buy it, and drop it off at my place for review.

Review Ma Ling the round spam please!

I'll admit it - I'm eagerly awaiting the future reviews!


What kind of noodle/soup did you use?

HAHA excellent! Either alot of chronic, or alot of free time!

Originally posted by BerserkerCatSplat
I'll admit it - I'm eagerly awaiting the future reviews!


What kind of noodle/soup did you use?

http://forums.beyond.ca/st/185697/f...-noodle-brands/

I have never tasted spam in my life What does it taste like?

i've never had spam but i've had klik.... and it is very good.

Steve don't eat it!