OK this is something of an oddity that passed me by at the end of December, but ever since I heard about it, I just couldn’t get it out of my head.
Yes you read the title correctly, a Spam and Oreo burger….
So on December 21st 2020 McDonald’s in China ran a one day event where they sold this mysterious burger. I’ve no idea why or what reason was behind the curiosity, but it piqued my interest anyway.
Spam, for those who don’t know is a processed pork luncheon meat. For some reason super popular in Hawaii (they even have Spam sushi), but also very popular with British pensioners, largely because it became a staple during the war.
Oreos however are not a staple of British Pensioners, but are a staple of my household. An Oreo is a sweet, dark, chocolate biscuit sandwich with a cream filling which mysteriously is also somehow vegan… what is in the cream?
So on paper I could see how this would work. Salty fatty pork mixed with sweet crunchy biscuit with some rich dairy mayo and a soft bun.
Salt and sweet go together, we know this. Soft and crunchy go together, dairy and acid too. This appears to have it all. Maybe it will be nice?
Ingredients:
Just the thought of going all out on this gave me a partial heart attack so I toned it down slightly with a reduced fat Spam and just using one regular Oreo. Low fat mayo and a nice fresh Tesco’s burger bap (seeded).
I followed Emmy’s instructions from her video and simply lightly fried both sides of two fairly thick sliced of spam (around 70 grams worth, 200 cals, 15 g of fat) and then placed them in a bun, topped with one oreo and than about 2 tspns of light mayo.
All in all about 500 cals of burger, so not a light meal by any means but you know, lunch…it’s fine.
Conclusion
It’s wrong but it’s oh so right. My predictions were correct, there is a really funky balance of flavours and tastes here that actually work to compliment very well.
I’m thankful that I went with the lighter Spam as it was nice and meaty and the burger remained fairly lean, no excess grease anywhere. Just like eating a decent butchers sausage tbh.
Just because Spam was a cheat meat, doesn’t mean it is now. Cost me 3 GBP for 200g of the stuff, this would have used about 70g. Considering McDonald’s China charged the equivalent of $2 for their burger, that actually represents very good value.
The mouthplay is fun, the soft bun and the coating of mayo and then breaking through is the fatty meat of the Spam with the sweet Oreo cutting through, and then the salt of the Spam coming back in, and then finally an acidic tang of the biscuit again. You might not consider Oreos acidic, but it’s there, also highlighted by the acid in the mayo.
Everything plays together well, it’s a bit like a salmon and horseradish blini, or a nice hotdog with caramelised onions, or even a nice BBQ sauce, or…. for our Scottish friends, a battered Mars bar (no judgement here, I can’t even count how many of them I’ve eaten as a kid, I’m sure my dentist can guess though).
I thought this would be a simple novelty, but I get it and actually it’s pretty interesting. I’d certainly make again and my wife approved, and amazing my 3 year old daughter (who is fussy AF) even took a bite and agreed. If only she knew she’s probably just eaten pig snout.
Have fun, let me know if you enjoyed.
