Get your kids excited about their school lunch with this kawaii Piggy Spam Musubi Bento! Wildly popular in Hawaii, spam musubi is super easy to prepare and you can get your kids to help out too.
Do you enjoy making bento for yourself or your family? Look what I made today! Super adorable Piggy Spam Musubi!
Watch How To Make Piggy Spam Musubi Bento スパムむすび弁当の作り方
Fun and simple piggy spam musubi bento will be a great hit at school or work, make this cute bento at home in a few easy steps.
What Is Spam Musubi?
Spam Musubi is a popular snack or lunch from Hawaii and it is composed of just three ingredients; a slice of grilled spam, rice, and nori (seaweed).
Spam was a main course for the troops during World War II, and the local Japanese in Hawaii created omusubi or onigiri (rice ball in Japanese) with spam on top. And that’s how spam musubi was invented.
These days spam musubi have different variations (some with furikake/rice seasonings, etc) and they can be easily found at restaurants and even convenience stores in Hawaii.
Not Just Spam Musubi, It’s Piggy Spam Musubi!
Last month I received a copy of this amazing Yummy Kawaii Bento cookbook written by my friend Li Ming Lee from Bento Monsters.
My children and I went through the entire cookbook together in one sitting. We discussed which one was our favorite and both of my children especially loved Ming’s Piggy Spam Musubi bento and wanted to make it.
It might seem intimidating to try when you look at the fancy bento. However, with really thorough step-by-step tutorials like Ming’s cookbook, you would quickly realize how easy and simple it is to make.
Some of you might be unfamiliar with working with rice and making the rice into a specific shape. No worries, Ming suggested using the tin that Spam was in it. You can easily make a nice and firm bed of rice with the tin.
You might wonder how the piggy’s ears and nose stay where they belong when the kids open their lunch box. We use uncooked spaghetti to secure them onto the spam. The rice contains enough moisture so by lunchtime, the spaghetti is soft and edible!
Ming’s 250-page Yummy Kawaii Bento cookbook has 70 cute bento recipes and 160 step-by-step tutorials with so many ideas! I’m totally blown away by all the pictures, tutorials, and details of this cookbook. Ming has a magic that makes the bento making so effortless.
If you already have an instagram account, I’m sure many of you already follow her Instagram account @bentomosters because how could we miss her super adorable creations? I mean, look at this cute food art!
As you can tell, there are lots of pictures, and if you’re a visual learner, this cookbook is really awesome. If you’re new to bento making, step-by-step pictures along with the detail explanation will help you tremendously. The final pictures are all so adorable and they inspire me to try making them on my own. Toward the end of the book, Ming shares some quick and easy recipes that can go into your bento box and I thought that’s very helpful.
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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- 3 slices Spam
- ½ Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc)
- 1½ cup cooked Japanese short-grain rice
- 1 slice ham
- 1 nori (seaweed)
- 1 spaghetti
-
Gather all the ingredients.
- Cut 3 slices of Spam. Add a little oil to the frying pan and cook the spam until lightly browned on both sides.
- Line the Spam tin with the plastic wrap. Scoop rice into the tin and gently press the rice together.
- Pull out the plastic wrap and remove it. Place a slice of spam on the rice.
- Cut out a strip of nori and wrap it around the spam-and-rice sandwich.
- Use a nori punch or a pair of scissors, cut out pig’s eyes and nostrils from the nori sheet.
- Cut out an oval shape from the slice of ham for the pig’s snout. Then cut out six smaller ovals for the pig’s ears and feet. Cut out an inverted “V” at the edges of four of the ovals to form the cloven hoovers.
- Place the ham and nori on the Spam.
- Use a spaghetti to secure the ham onto the Spam and pack spam musubi into the bento box.
Equipment you will need:
- Spam tin (washed and dried)
- Plastic wrap
- Scissors
- Nori punch (optional)
- Tweezers (optional)
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Nami u r so creative. Tks for sharing.
Thank you Angela! I made it so easily thanks to the cookbook! 😉
Wow, your children have such a short lunch break!! It must be difficult to pack their lunches so that the meal is easy to eat within that time, but still all-around nutritious. (I remember being a horribly slow eater when I was little.) Thanks for introducing us to this bento design. The trick with the spam tin to shape the rice is great!
Hi Kimmi! Right? I remember I had 45 min lunch break and that was a nice break from studying and enjoying mom’s bento… I miss those days. 🙂 Yes, I actually went to look for spam mold too, just to show there is such thing, but I realized it’s not easy to find outside of Hawaii… so this idea from the cookbook was excellent! 🙂
OMG! So cute ! Too cute! Too pretty to eat bentos!
Thank you, Joy! Good part is… it’s so easy you can make it again. 😉
Hi! This bento cookbook looks amazing- love that it has lots of pictures. Thanks for the info!
Hi Leila! Yes, this book has many pictures! I definitely love that part of this cookbook. 🙂
Spam and bento… What’s not to love?? :O)
Right? 🙂 Thanks Ross!
Following BentoMonsters on Instagram, everything looks so amazing!
Hi Minh! Yes, Ming is very creative and I’m really happy for her that she published her cookbook! 🙂
So cute! Wish my kids were little!
Hehe thank you D! 🙂
I have enjoyed Spam Musubi for years, I Teriyaki the Spam and sometimes add Seasoned Rice Vinegar to the rice for a little variation. Enjoy the website as always.
Paul
Hi Paul! Yeah it’s fun to have all kinds of variations and I wonder what else I could add… 😀 Thank you so much for reading my blog! 🙂
Hi Sissi! Yeah it’s so short! I don’t blame my kids for not finishing (especially when I pack a lot of stuff)… 😀 I just hope they eat enough without being hungry in rest of class. I bet both Bento and Spam Musubi are not so common words you hear in Europe… 🙂
You’re such an amazing home cook, I can see you make bento for yourself… 😀 😀 😀
Hi Nami,
Thanks for answering my question about pickled ginger. Tried again and ginger is pink this time. Love the piggy spam musubi bento. A hit with my 11 year old daughter! Looking forward to more exciting recipies.
Hi Joanna! I’m so glad to hear it worked this time! The pink part is very important. Thanks so much for your feedback! 🙂
I AM GOING TO MAKE THIS TO SURPRISE MY SON. SPAM MUSUBI HAS BEEN ONE OF HIS FAVORITES SINCE CHILDHOOD (he is 37). THESE LITTLE PIGGIES WILL MAKE HIM SMILE.
Hi Honey Bear! I hope your son will like it!! I think he’ll be shocked to see Spam musubi can be this cute. LOL. Thanks so much!
Hi Nami, I love your piggy bento, they are so creative and adorable. To me making bento is not easy especially when you have to use all edible ingredients to make all kinds of variation. Thanks for sharing all the wonderful recipes.
Hi Jacky! Thank you so much for your kind compliment. 🙂 I’m happy to hear you enjoy my recipes! xo
Nami is there anything in the rice to hold it together so it keeps its shape?
Hi Linda! As long as you use Japanese short grain rice, you don’t need to worry about it (of course you have to press down a little bit so that some pieces of rice won’t fall off). Jasmine rice and other types are not sticky enough. By the way this is not “sticky rice” like glutinous rice. It’s just a Japanese short grain rice that has a bit more sticky texture than other Asian varieties of long rice. 🙂
Hi Nami… Those are so cute and very creative!!! ????????…….Thank you for new idea.
Thanks so much Jeanne! 🙂
Wow~ This bento is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen~ I would love to do this in the future for my children and myself as well. 😀 But aside from that, I saw this article as I’m searching for an article to write for a site-based article, and would love to use this as my basis, and if possible to use the images found here. I’m leaving a comment here to ask permission to use your photos if you’re okay with it. I will cite this article as well, but I think the readers would get a better visual on how to make it with the picture you’ve provided. So, if you’re okay with it, is it alright for me to use the photos in my article?
BTW: I’m new to the site and would sure to look more on the recipes as I want to learn to make more Japanese food. 😀 I’m glad I found this. 🙂
Hi Louise! Thanks for asking my permission. You can use ONE of any images above in my post, but please DO NOT post the recipe on the site. And please link back to this post. If you agree with this term, I give my permission. 🙂
Thanks for finding my post/blog! Hope you try cooking Japanese food at home! 🙂
That’s totally fine with me. 😀 Thank you so much for your reply! 😀 And yes, I’ve been trying to cook Japanese food for a while, especially sushi and tamago. My family loves them and I wanna learn more. I’ll be sure to check more recipes here! 😀
Thank you Louise! xo
Hi Celeste! Thank you for your kind words! I’m terrible at making cute bento, and this is definitely a special one for me (and for my kids). 🙂 Haha you have lots of spam to go through! Enjoy making cute spam musubi! xo
Nami..do I need to season the rice?
Hi Angie! No, no need. The spam is very salty as it is, so you don’t need to season the rice for this. 🙂
Nami, thank you for this wonderful site.
I would love to make these Piggies, what do you think about using pickled ginger for the features instead of the ham? I love the taste of ginger with ham.
Hi Elizabeth! Sure, if you like the taste and the combination, anything is possible. 🙂
Ohhhh that’s so adorable!
Thank you for sharing this!
I’ll try this for my nephews.
Thank you Nicole! Hope your nephews will enjoy this recipe! 🙂
Hi Nami, this recipe is probably old so you may not see this, but I was wondering how early in advance can you make these? IE can I make it the night before and put it in the fridge/leave out? I just don’t think I’d have enough time in the morning to cook rice and SPAM before having to go to class…
BTW I love your recipes. It’s nice to see authentic Japanese cooking, even if the ingredients are hard to find sometimes!
Hi Katherine! I do get notification of all the comments I receive even on old posts. 🙂
So… the thing about rice. When you refrigerate rice, it gets hard. 🙁 So My recommendation for all the rice recipes (like Onigirazu, Onigiri, etc) is to assemble in the morning of. I understand spam musubi is a bit time consuming to make. If I were you, I would cook spam ahead of time and assemble in the morning? Hard rice does not taste good (which is why it’s great for cooking fried rice). Another trick I sometimes use for leftover sushi rolls and onigiri is to wrap the food (after you wrap with plastic wrap) with a kitchen towel so the food does not get too cold (but cool enough for food safety).
Hope this helps. Thank you so much for trying my recipes!