Luncheon meat is a canned, cured block of ground pork — the style the American brand Spam made famous — mixed with salt, a little sugar, curing nitrite and potato starch, sealed in a can and cooked through, so it keeps for years without refrigeration. Turned out of the tin it slices into pale-pink, dense, springy slabs, salty and faintly sweet; fried until the edges caramelise and crisp it turns golden and deeply savoury. Cheap, shelf-stable and instantly cookable, it became a beloved staple across Hawaii, the Philippines, South Korea, Guam and Hong Kong, far outstripping its humble Depression-era American origins.