Spam.com

When I look at my Gmail spam list, I get (courtesy of the helpful keyword associators at Google) links to recipes made from that chopped-ham-in-a-can called Spam. Veggie pita pockets, Spam vegetable strudel and creamy Spam broccoli casserole are some of Gmail’s most recent culinary offerings. I wondered: Maybe there’s a whole Web site devoted to Spam. Sure enough, there is. Spam.com features numerous recipes organized by type of food (casseroles, entrees, pizza, etc.), type of cuisine (American, Irish, Mexican, etc.) and prep method (bake, broil, deep fry and so on). In the mood for a little Cantonese sweet-and-sour Spam or curried Spam and rice? “My sister made this recipe when she was feeling down. Then she smiled so much her face hurt,” asserts a testimonial of the latter. There’s an extensive online Spam store (glow-in-the-dark Spam-logo-ed pants?), lots of historical Spam trivia, and directions to the Spam Museum in Austin, Minn. The site also informs us that 2007 was “not only the Chinese Year of the Pig, but also the 70th anniversary of the greatest moment in the history of mankind” —the invention of Spam.