Summer Food: Spam con Cerveza; a Locust Fry
During a surfing trip many years ago, a stuck VW van forced Melissa Spurr to improvise a recipe for Spam con Cerveza. The dish became a staple during her travels. Courtesy Melissa Spurr hide caption
Previously in the Series
Over the past few weeks, we've heard stories about the foods that mean "summer" to some of our listeners: tomatoes, peach milk shakes, apricot jam.
Now, we hear about some more unusual summer foods.
When Melissa Spurr of Joshua Tree, Calif., sent in a recipe for Spam con Cerveza, we didn't know if we were supposed to eat it — or drink it.
Its ingredients include 12 to 36 cans of beer, a can of Spam, an avocado, a tomato and fresh tortillas.
But things became clear as she described a trip to Baja during which her vehicle got mired in sand. The recipe was born out of necessity and became a staple on all of her subsequent surfing trips.
Now, she says, she is older, she's a vegetarian, and she drinks far fewer Modelos.
Even beer might not help the food at the heart of Jacquelyn Kuehn's story go down any easier: bugs.
Kuehn, of Lucernemines, Pa., recalls the crunch of fried locusts, sprinkled with salt and accompanied by honey.
Her husband paid each family member $5 per bug they ate. Their son ended up eating two; for $10, it wasn't a bad deal.