We'll See How Long This Lasts…

When we were still in NOLA, I remember seeing FoodTV coverage of Austin’s annual Spam festival, SPAMARAMA, and being disappointed that it was so far away. Well, not any more, cap’n! I now live less than ten miles from the event, baby, and we plan on going to witness the Processed-Pressed-Spiced-Pork-Product goodness! (If you know me, you know my love for culturally-popular commercial products – see my previous posts about Coca-cola.)

SEE!-the mighty Spam-toss event! TASTE!-the endless plethora of dishes using Spam as the main ingredient! SMELL!-more Spam than people should normally be surrounded by, unless you live in Hawaii.

Come, join in our fun if you live in Austin. Hell, come join us even if you don’t.

WHAT: SPAM-A-RAMA
WHERE: Here, at Waterloo Park
WHEN: Saturday, April 1st, Noon-6pm – (Call us to determine when we actually plan to be there…)

That is all.

**** UPDATE – April 01, 2006 ****
Well, two things need to be said at this time.

ONE – The Spamarama is actually reasonably LAME. Yeah, you heard me. I said it. Lame. What did this WONDEROUS festival feature? For starters, it had about ten or fifteen booths/tents of vendors selling crafts, cheap jewelry, and other such things nobody needs. Next were the food tents – there were about ten of those, each selling some okay looking stuff, but not ONE of them selling SPAM dishes. At Spamarama. WTF? There was a big stage featuring a loud, forgettable band at the far end of the festival area. Another huge tent had two LONG lines feeding into it. Each line was SUPPOSED to gain tent access to browse though all the Spam Cook-off contestants, and sample each of their dishes. Yeah, well, MY line just let me in and allowed me to try to peer ove r the shoulders of the line from the other direction, all of them blocking ready access to almost every contestant. Thanks! Almost halfway to the stage there was a building with restrooms and a Daiquiri tent. MissyG and I sat waiting near it, entertained only by the bees that took up residence in her lemonade. The nerve! They didn’t even ask if they could share. Anyway, what were we waiting for?

TWO – There was a Spamburger Eating Contest to be held at 4:15 in front of the big stage. And guess who signed up for it – your buddy Miltor. Here’s the deal – each of the contestants was given a bun, bottle of water (they forgot me on that one), and an unopened can of your favorite pressed ham product and mine – SPAM. The contest was to be the quickest to open the can, slap the whole thing between the bun, and then eat it all up. Man, the guy next to me must have been practicing for weeks! That, or he recently ate most of his meals in a prison mess hall. Either way, he was downing that Spamburger faster than I could believe. Where did it go? How did he get it down? You won’t be surprised to know he won. You MIGHT be surprised to know I placed THIRD! It was, after all, only one can. Okay, truth be told, that ONE can splashed into my stomach like a meteor made of ham and gel hitting the ocean. Ugh. No more Spam for me for a while. And maybe no more Spamarama – as far as I’m concerned, there was very little to do or see.

Now, anyone up for the Gallon Challenge?