The Hawaiian Snack That's Just Too Expensive At Costco, According To Customers

An iconic Hawaiian snack that's gaining traction stateside is spam musubi, an affordable take on sushi that consists of two thin slices of soy-marinated and fried Spam and a sticky sushi rice filling held together by a strip of nori. Spam is widely regarded as one of the cheapest ingredients, and Spam musubi is likewise a cheap snack that you can even find at convenience stores in Hawaii. Costco has picked up on the Hawaiian snack craze with a recent offering of Kokoro frozen grilled musubi, featuring a meatless soy-glazed Spam patty, a fluffy egg, and rice wrapped in nori. This product comes with eight pieces of musubi and costs around $18.

Vegetarians will rejoice at the meatless spam patties, but ironically, Redditors think that "the meatless patty is probably at least twice as expensive as spam would be." Spam is, after all, one of the cheapest canned meat products you can find. One Redditor refers to spam musubi as "cheap 7-11 food," except, "7-Eleven uses actual spam in their spam musubi...so this is cheap knockoff 7-Eleven food." The price tag is steep for a mere 8 servings of a snack that you should be able to make for a fraction of the price. "I'd expect this to have real spam and at least double the amount for this price," says one Redditor. To that effect, another Redditor proclaims, "8 pieces for $18 is crazy. You can buy a 6 pack of Spam in Costco for about $15."

It's safe to say that the Kokoro frozen grilled musubi is a product that isn't the bargain you might associate with Costco. So, you can save money when shopping at Costco by buying the bulk Spam packs that will make infinitely more snacks than what comes out of the Kokoro frozen bag. We've got a simple spam musubi recipe for you to follow that fries the Spam in a mixture of soy sauce, brown sugar, mirin, and canola oil, creating perfectly crispy and caramelized edges.

If you're making Spam musubi for a crowd, you can transform these individual sushi rolls into a bakeable snack by lining a baking dish with slices of Spam, spreading an even layer of rice, then topping with more Spam before broiling the musubi casserole for a few minutes to get that golden crust on the Spam. Plus, if you make Spam musubi at home, you've got tons of options for customizations. For example, you can garnish the musubi with diced green onion, sesame seeds, or the famous Japanese Furikake seasoning to amp up the umami flavors. A drizzle of Kewpie mayo and Sriracha would also be a spicy and creamy upgrade. You can even swap out the Spam itself for canned corned beef for a more tender and flakier main protein with a more robust umami-richness.