SPAM & EGG SLIDERS
If you asked me how I’m feeling, really feeling, on my birthday this year, I would tell you that I’ve been mentally struggling a bit. These days, I swing between crippling guilt and overwhelming gratitude, loneliness and comfort in solitude, anxiety and ignorant bliss. What’s left in the wake of the whiplash is an exhausted, emotional mess of a human struggling to get through some days. Social media makes it hard to see and people don’t talk about it much, but I know I’m not alone in this feeling.
The COVID-19 pandemic upended life as we know it and the sheer magnitude of its impact and remaining potential is terrifying. I’m doing what I can — shopping small, donating, staying home, being cautious, even working in an industry that directly affects people during this time — but it still doesn’t feel like enough. I’ve been trying to reconcile the IMMENSE amount of privilege that I recognize I have with the constant weight of the current situation and how it’s affecting others, and manage feelings of being inbetween communities (removed from Seattle and unintegrated into NYC) while maintaining hope for the relationships and experiences that I imagined would have transpired by now. All of this and also knowing that thousands around me are dying from a disease that senselessly latches onto anyone vulnerable makes it feel really f-ing weird to be celebrating a birthday.
Sitting in this tension of contradictory feelings has been a wrestle, but today has been a much better day than others. I’m surrounded by friends and family, near and far, who remind me that I’m loved and supported and will happily celebrate my existence even when I don’t feel like enough. If I’ve learned anything from all this, it’s that my attitude is one of the few things I can control, and today I’m choosing to lean into the positives where I can. I’m thankful for another year of life. For health and safety. For a roof over my head and food to eat. For a job and supportive team. For my friends and fam. For technology, as much as I love and hate it these days. And for the ones directly fighting the good fight, the everyday heroes who really deserve the celebration.
So what does all this have to do with spam & egg sliders? My wonderful work team sent me an Amazon Fresh delivery last week in celebration of my birthday from afar with items including champagne and OJ for mimosas, and King’s Hawaiian rolls. I’ve been eyeing the can of Spam in the pantry for a while now, and this was the perfect excuse to pop it open. Spam is a polarizing food — there’s something undeniably gross about the squelch that happens when the tubular mystery meat comes sliding out — but in my household, it’s a special item reserved for hurricane season and when we feel particularly indulgent when making things like kimchi fried rice or budae jjigae (next recipe!). A birthday and some inspiring Hawaiian rolls ended up being just what I needed to make this recipe come to life. Cheers to another trip around the sun!
Spam & Egg Sliders
Makes 4 sliders
4 pieces of King’s Hawaiian Savory Butter Rolls, cut in half
1/2 tbsp butter
2 slices of Spam, about 1/4-1/2 inch thick, cut in half
4 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp mayo
2 tsp sriracha
1 green onion, thinly julienned and cut in 1 inch lengths
Salt
Black pepper
To make: Melt butter in a pan over medium-low heat. Toast the rolls, cut side down, until lightly brown and crispy. Remove rolls and raise heat to medium. Add Spam slices, turning over and frying until each side is crisped and edges are browned. Remove Spam slices from pan onto plate covered in paper towel to blot excess oil. Wipe the pan out lightly. In a separate bowl, add eggs, milk, salt and pepper and whisk until combined. Pour half of the egg mixture into the pan on medium-low heat, waiting until the eggs have set on the bottom and only a light layer of uncooked egg remains on top. Fold the egg into thirds to form a rectangular, French omelette shape and cook for another minute until inside is done. Remove cooked eggs and repeat with remaining half of egg mixture. Cut each egg omelette in half, ending up with four squares. Stack the bottom half of the roll, egg, spam, then green onion. In a small bowl, combine mayo and sriracha to make aioli and smear onto the top half of each toasted roll and top off your slider!