Why Do Filipinos Love This Canned Meat? 

I love SPAM.

Spam is in my blood, in the very genes of my body.

Why?

Because it’s a requirement to love it if you are from the Philippines, which I am.

In World War 2, people who lived in the archipelago suffered greatly as a result of the occupation by the Japanese.

When the allies liberated the Philippines, they found a war-weary people. Physically and emotionally exhausted from being prisoners on the island. Their home.

The United States military wanted to make sure that the island got enough supplies of food but there was one catch. It had to be able to be delivered by airplane…

While it was still flying.

They needed to airdrop it in.

With these requirements, they went to the enterprising minds at Hormel Foods who came up with a meat product they called Shoulder of Pork and Ham, or SPAM for short.

The canning process actually cooked the meat AND made it a non-perishable food item that could survive the trip in–and out–of a plane.

When the military began to drop SPAM on the island, the people there looked at it like it was a gift from heaven. A modern day biblical story of mana dropping from the sky.

It became a staple for breakfast (and oftentimes, lunch and dinner, as well).

A comfort food, sliced and fried, served with eggs over-easy and garlic fried rice. If you are from the Philippines and you don’t like it, you are considered a pariah. Just kidding. Not really.

It was during a breakfast like this when my wife, Sonia, and I were trying to figure out where to take our next 3-month mini-retirement. I wanted to go back to the Philippines like our last 3-month mini-retirement.

Sonia, on the other hand, was not on board with that idea.

We went back and forth on other ideas, and Florida came up. It was another warm place we had never been to but it seemed like a wonderful place.

Although I wanted to go to Florida for 3 months, we settled on a fairly normal 10-day vacation. Meaning, Sonia decided we would only go for 10 days.

Sonia did not feel like she could leave Toronto for even that long. She was self-employed as a property and casualty insurance broker and she did not feel she could be away from her clients for that long.

We were stuck in our conversation which was going to torpedo this Florida trip. It was then I remembered something from my days working for the Rich Dad Education.

Wealthy people, or people with a wealthy mindset, always try to answer the question “How CAN I?” instead of trying to find all the ways “I CAN’T”.

Broke people do that.

Just like Hormel Foods figured out a way to make SPAM fall from the sky, so that a liberated people could eat, we could figure out a way to go to Florida for 3 months–not 10 days–3 months.

And we did.

But, that’s another story for another time. 🙂