SPAMtastic event

PALMER — To some, SPAM may be the poor man’s ham, but to the 32 hopeful cooks at the Alaska State Fairgrounds on Monday, it was as revered as filet mignon.

From Oriental sesame SPAM to SPAM cheesecake to an appetizer called SPAMalini zucchini, dozens of dishes were presented at the annual Great American SPAM Championship.

For Mary Helms, it was a chance to rise to the top again. She won the contest in 2007 with her SPAM Wellington, and according to contest rules couldn’t compete last year. She returned with gusto, making a fresh batch of spicy SPAM lo mein to tingle the judges’ taste buds. It did, and she won again.

“It has a peanut-based sauce with coconut milk,” she said shortly before walking out the back door to prepare her dish. “I’ll cook it in the parking lot off the tailgate of my truck. It’s best fresh.”

The idea to use SPAM in a dish with Chinese and Thai influences is one of many she’s had.

“I cook a lot of different things,” Helms said. “I like fusion cooking.”

Judging Helms’ creation is Casey Ressler, a 13-year veteran at tasting SPAM creations. What does he look for?

“Hopefully it doesn’t taste like SPAM,” he joked. “Really, you’ve got to be creative with it. I like a good sauce, and there are usually a couple of variations of the same thing each year.”

This year is the second for a kids category in the contest, and 10-year-old Valley resident Samantha Belliston said she put a lot of work into her winning dish, sesame seed SPAM. She described the process of making her variation of sesame chicken.

“Well, you have the SPAM and you deep fry it,” she said. “I also did ham fried rice, only without the ham and with SPAM instead. It just tastes a little different, but good.”

Something else that promised a different taste was the SPAM cheesecake prepared by Fred Kohli of Anchorage.

“The crust is made out of SPAM and the topping is made out of SPAM,” he said. “It’s crispy hot and spicy SPAM on top. The cheesecake has got ricotta and feta and cream cheeses in it.”

Throw in some peppers and garlic, and the result is a savory concoction Kohli hoped would wow the judges.

There was plenty of SPAM to go around for the Thompson family when parents Tammy and Jon Eric hustled in five entries overall — one from the adults and four from their kids.

Mom and dad entered their Thai SPAM rolls with cabbage, while the kids took a more creative route to coming up with their ideas. Tammy said she clipped recipe ideas out of magazines and put them in a box and had the kids draw randomly.

Among the rules is that each entry must contain at least one 12-ounce can of SPAM, which means the 32 dishes displayed included 24 pounds of the processed meat product. The final score is based 45 percent on taste, 30 percent on originality and 25 percent on presentation.

After 12 years of judging the fair’s contest, Ressler said creativity is always on display.

“People really get into it, and you see some of the same people here every year,” he said. And overall, the dishes “are pretty good.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.