Food & Culture

Spam Meets Sushi? This Bremerton Treat is Worth the Ferry Ride

This Hawaiian cafe makes phenomenal musubi.

By Chelsea Lin July 11, 2017

ACPhotography_CakfeKai_5_11_2017-7


This article originally appeared in the July 2017 issue of Seattle Magazine.

Before you dismiss the culinary appeal of Spam, try it Jamie Cancel’s way. The owner of Bremerton’s sweet, laid-back Hawaiian Cafe Kai is using her musubi—blocks of rice generally topped with Spam (and/or other ingredients)—to popularize the polarizing pork product. She says musubi, which she grew up making for birthdays and beach parties in her native Hawaii, is the best kind of portable snack. I don’t disagree.

My favorite is a brunch lover’s dream, the rice brushed with house-made teriyaki (created by Cancel’s husband, Brandon Sumailo), topped with salty Spam, strips of bacon and egg scrambled with soy sauce, all held together with a little seaweed belt ($3.50). This may not be the comfort food I grew up with, but it’s one I’ve adopted. Bremerton, 2518 Wheaton Way; 360.627.8755

 

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