More than mere food, SPAM is for me
a hedonistic expression of gluttonous glee.
Mottled with pork fat, the pink cube engrosses.
My mouth takes it in, my intestine disposes.
- Excerpted from a much longer poem by Charlie Johnston
It had to be done. I had eaten scrapple in Delaware and livermush in North Carolina. We couldn't drive by Austin, Minnesota without having a Spam breakfast experience. Spam is produced by the Hormel Food Corporation in Austin. Spam is to Austin MN as chocolate is to Hershey PA. According to the New York Times, Austin has 13 restaurants with Spam on the menu. A few of these serve breakfast. I picked one that had a number of Spam options on the menu and had the added advantage of being within walking distance of the Spam museum.
Kenny's Oak Grill
Austin, Minnesota
AMBIENCE: Kenny's Oak Grill was purchased back in 1965 by a young man with the Minnesota-worthy name of Kenny Knutson and his wife Joanne. I believe that Kenny and Joanne are still in charge and a couple of their children appreciably participate in the operation. It is the oldest family run restaurant in Austin. The original restaurant sat across the street from the current location. The Knutsons were forced to move in 1993 when the high school needed to expand.
Kenny's has "classic diner" written all over it. It has neon. It has the glass cabinet with the humongous pies. It has the register up front and the large pass through opening to the kitchen. It has tables, booths, and counter service. The counter is a little different than most diners in that it is built low to the ground with chairs in place rather than stools.
The walls are covered with just about everything imaginable, from musical instruments, to antique metal advertising signs, to posters, to old license plates. We sat in a comfortable booth underneath an autographed picture of the Blue Angels. The place felt "new" and I subsequently learned that the diner underwent a renovation in 2015 to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
5 out of 5 stars
FOOD: Kenny's has an extensive breakfast menu with some intriguing items. The Healthy One pointed out that I could have "Two Eggs, Fish, and a side of Spam". Did she seriously think I might order that? Probably, but fish had no appeal for me at 8 in the morning. Another unusual item on the menu was an omelet named the Northlander that contained chicken, wild rice, and Hollandaise sauce. I was here for Spam so I ended up ordering a Spam and Cheese omelet, made with three eggs, three kinds of cheese, and of course, Spam. The omelet came with a choice of a side and I choose a slice of french toast, trying to erase the memory of the lame french toast I had the previous morning in Iowa.
The omelet looked as delicious as it did sumptuous. You could see that there were about 4 or 5 little chunks of Spam decorating the top. This was merely the tip of the iceberg. It wasn't until I peered inside that it became apparent that I would be having a total Spam experience. There must have been at least 6 ounces of the glistening pinkish meat stuffed into the pinata of an omelet.
I can't recall if I ever had the pleasure of eating Spam before. I may have tasted it as a youth. I do remember Spam cans sitting on a shelf with other eternally preserved food items in our basement room/bomb shelter. The early 1960s were a scary time to many, both in terms of hydrogen bombs raining down and the prospect of eating Spam slathered with Skippy peanut butter (also made by Hormel) for days on end.
Although a little on the salty side, I loved my omelet. The Spam tasted pretty much like ham. If this omelet had dropped out of the sky and someone asked me to taste it and guess what it was, I would reply without hesitation that it was a ham and cheese omelet. I've had a few ham and cheese omelets in my day, but never had anywhere near as much ham in those omelets as I had Spam in this one. The abundance of Spam did not detract from the wonderful gooey cheese and savory eggs.
Did I have a healthy breakfast? Not. I did a few calculations, and assuming there was 6 ounces of Spam in the omelet, I received 96% of the sodium, 39% of the cholesterol, and 84% of the saturated fat of my daily dietary allowance. And that doesn't include the three eggs and the three kinds of cheese. I planned on rice cakes for lunch and salad for dinner.
The single piece of french toast, or should I say the butter with a side of french toast, was delicious.
The Healthy One ordered a very traditional breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon which also came with a single pancake. She said that the eggs were good and the pancake was fine. It was the bacon that stood out as a treat to her taste buds. No surprise. After all, we were only 12 miles from the border of Iowa with its population of 20 million pigs.
The omelet looked as delicious as it did sumptuous. You could see that there were about 4 or 5 little chunks of Spam decorating the top. This was merely the tip of the iceberg. It wasn't until I peered inside that it became apparent that I would be having a total Spam experience. There must have been at least 6 ounces of the glistening pinkish meat stuffed into the pinata of an omelet.
Although a little on the salty side, I loved my omelet. The Spam tasted pretty much like ham. If this omelet had dropped out of the sky and someone asked me to taste it and guess what it was, I would reply without hesitation that it was a ham and cheese omelet. I've had a few ham and cheese omelets in my day, but never had anywhere near as much ham in those omelets as I had Spam in this one. The abundance of Spam did not detract from the wonderful gooey cheese and savory eggs.
Did I have a healthy breakfast? Not. I did a few calculations, and assuming there was 6 ounces of Spam in the omelet, I received 96% of the sodium, 39% of the cholesterol, and 84% of the saturated fat of my daily dietary allowance. And that doesn't include the three eggs and the three kinds of cheese. I planned on rice cakes for lunch and salad for dinner.
The single piece of french toast, or should I say the butter with a side of french toast, was delicious.
5 out of 5 stars.
COFFEE:
It was Midwest coffee. (See Ohio report.)
2 1/2 out of 5 stars
SERVICE: Kenny's website stated that the restaurant has two servers who have been there since the early 1970s and two servers who have been there since the mid-1980s. I am fairly certain that we had one of these veterans as our server. She approached us wearing a tie-dye T shirt with SPAM written across the front. I thought, given her attire, she might provide a fun interaction. I was wrong. She greeted us as the "outsiders" we were, which was to say formally and with little warmth on this chilly, overcast morning. She certainly displayed the skills of someone who had been on the job for decades. I have no complaints about how the basics of the service were provided. I would also add that she was doing more than going through the motions, but nevertheless seemed to be on automatic pilot.
3 1/2 out of 5 stars
.
3 1/2 out of 5 stars
A FEW WORDS ABOUT AUSTIN:
Austin or Spamtown USA has a population of almost 25,000 people. Hormel is by far the largest employer with 2,700 employees. Quality Pork Processors which supplies the main ingredient of Spam to Hormel employs an additional 1,500.
If for some odd reason, you happen to find yourself in Austin and have an hour or two to spare, the Spam Museum is worth a visit. We were greeted with a enthusiastic "good morning!" by a "Spambassador" at the front door. The museum, which had just reopened in 2016 after an ambitious makeover, is bright and colorful. Everything you would ever want (or don't want) to know about Spam is shown through visual history displays and interactive exhibits. At times, you feel like you are attending some sort of surreal cocktail party as a Spambassador cruises the rooms with a tray of complimentary Spam samples stuck to the ends of a pretzel stick.
Some things I learned about Spam:
- Since Spam was launched in 1937, the Hormel Food Corporation has sold over 8 billion cans in 44 countries.
- Spam sales took off during World War II when it became a staple of soldiers' diets. Smithsonian Magazine also reported that Spam's grease was used by soldiers to lubricate their guns and waterproof their boots.
- Hawaii leads all states in current Spam consumption. Seven million cans a year are purchased in Hawaii, that's three pounds of Spam per year per Hawaiian.
- Spam only has six ingredients: pork (both shoulder and leg), salt, water, potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrate. The potato starch was added in 2009 in an effort to eliminate the gelatin layer.
- In April, 2017 the museum hosted its first Spam themed wedding. In case you have any doubts that many of the British are slightly wacky, the lovely couple traveled 4,000 miles from Liverpool to be married at the shrine to Spam. The groom's name was Mark I LOVE SPAM Benson and yes, Mr. Benson had legally changed his name.
- Hormel claims that the name Spam was coined at a "name that mystery meat" contest during a New Year's Eve party. Supposedly it is a blend of the words "spiced ham", though many others have come up with their own word origins; some not exactly G-rated.
- The term "Spam e-mail" derives from a 1970 Monty Python skit where a couple is having breakfast in a restaurant where Spam is an ingredient in every item on the menu much to the chagrin of the wife who absolutely hates Spam. Spam in a sense becomes unavoidable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE
The museum has a store with hundreds of Spam related items. I bought a T-shirt and a can of Spam. I was curious as to whether Austinites actually eat Spam so I asked the young woman who was my cashier whether she liked Spam. "Oh yes!" she answered "I have it every day, either for breakfast, lunch, or dinner". I should report that the Mayo Clinic is Austin's third largest employer.
As we left the museum, a Spambassador wished a "spamtastic" day. By then I had had my fill of Spam both literally and figuratively. We headed north.
BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:
Austin or Spamtown USA has a population of almost 25,000 people. Hormel is by far the largest employer with 2,700 employees. Quality Pork Processors which supplies the main ingredient of Spam to Hormel employs an additional 1,500.
If for some odd reason, you happen to find yourself in Austin and have an hour or two to spare, the Spam Museum is worth a visit. We were greeted with a enthusiastic "good morning!" by a "Spambassador" at the front door. The museum, which had just reopened in 2016 after an ambitious makeover, is bright and colorful. Everything you would ever want (or don't want) to know about Spam is shown through visual history displays and interactive exhibits. At times, you feel like you are attending some sort of surreal cocktail party as a Spambassador cruises the rooms with a tray of complimentary Spam samples stuck to the ends of a pretzel stick.
Some things I learned about Spam:
- Since Spam was launched in 1937, the Hormel Food Corporation has sold over 8 billion cans in 44 countries.
- Spam sales took off during World War II when it became a staple of soldiers' diets. Smithsonian Magazine also reported that Spam's grease was used by soldiers to lubricate their guns and waterproof their boots.
- Hawaii leads all states in current Spam consumption. Seven million cans a year are purchased in Hawaii, that's three pounds of Spam per year per Hawaiian.
- Spam only has six ingredients: pork (both shoulder and leg), salt, water, potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrate. The potato starch was added in 2009 in an effort to eliminate the gelatin layer.
- In April, 2017 the museum hosted its first Spam themed wedding. In case you have any doubts that many of the British are slightly wacky, the lovely couple traveled 4,000 miles from Liverpool to be married at the shrine to Spam. The groom's name was Mark I LOVE SPAM Benson and yes, Mr. Benson had legally changed his name.
- Hormel claims that the name Spam was coined at a "name that mystery meat" contest during a New Year's Eve party. Supposedly it is a blend of the words "spiced ham", though many others have come up with their own word origins; some not exactly G-rated.
- The term "Spam e-mail" derives from a 1970 Monty Python skit where a couple is having breakfast in a restaurant where Spam is an ingredient in every item on the menu much to the chagrin of the wife who absolutely hates Spam. Spam in a sense becomes unavoidable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE
The museum has a store with hundreds of Spam related items. I bought a T-shirt and a can of Spam. I was curious as to whether Austinites actually eat Spam so I asked the young woman who was my cashier whether she liked Spam. "Oh yes!" she answered "I have it every day, either for breakfast, lunch, or dinner". I should report that the Mayo Clinic is Austin's third largest employer.
As we left the museum, a Spambassador wished a "spamtastic" day. By then I had had my fill of Spam both literally and figuratively. We headed north.
After breakfast and before the Spam museum opened at 10, we walked the quiet bike path along the Cedar River. After we left the Spam Museum we stopped in lovely Northfield, Minnesota and walked on the campus of St. Olaf College followed by a stroll through Northfield's compact business district. The day ended with a walking tour of Carleton College led by student extraordinaire Laura.
October 11, 2017
NEXT UP: NORTH DAKOTA
I’ve heard tales of possessive cooks leaving out one important instruction when passing along a prized recipe so that no one can quite reproduce their treasured creation. It seems clear that your French Toast was the product of just such a flim-flam. While the proper and praiseworthy instruction to ‘serve butter with a shovel’ appears to have been faithfully transcribed, the instruction to ‘apportion maple syrup with a bucket’ was regrettably left out.
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