This weekend at the Atlanta Jazz Fest, the Spam brand is inviting Atlanta residents to experience the first-ever SpamAmerican Tour .
And Atlanta's own Jim Stacy — the larger-than-life chef, TV personality, and owner of the Avondale Estates soda fountain and deli, Pallookaville Fine Foods — will be serving up something he calls Spam Bo for the occasion.
“It’s my Spam gumbo that I developed for them,” Stacy says without laughing. “Spam was always just a camping thing for us, so I didn’t eat a whole lot of it growing up. But going to Hawaii with my wife, Kim, kind of brought it back.
"There’s a great little breakfast place in Kauai that has an egg, white rice and spam dish. It just became such a part of our trips, so I started thinking more about it, again. Then when Spam got in touch with me, I started looking into it even more.”
Surprisingly, Stacy says, coming up with an original Spam recipe was much harder than he expected.
“When I would think of something and start researching it, there would already be 50 recipes,” he says. “So it got pretty tough to figure out something that no one had done before. But Creole gumbo turned out pretty well. I fry the Spam crispy and it works sort of like tasso ham in the recipe.”
As far as his take on Spam in general, Stacy recognizes its pop culture standing, especially going back to the infamous Monty Python song and sketch.
“I’m absolutely enamored with Americana and kitsch and Tiki culture, so it all made sense,” Stacy says. “It rings all my bells.”
Stacy will be doing a cooking demo and serving up samples of his Spam Bo from noon until 4 p.m. on Sunday at the Atlanta Jazz Festival site at 500 10th Street N.E., Zone F, near Park Tavern restaurant.
“The gumbo is really traditional, other than the Spam,” Stacy allows. “It has a dark roux, and a traditional homemade Creole seasoning, with andouille and Georgia white shrimp, and a little spoonful of white rice.”
The SpamAmerican truck will be serving unique Spam recipes all Memorial Day weekend, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. at the Atlanta Jazz Festival. And the SpamAmerican Tour will be making a few more stops in Atlanta next week, including the Kroger at Saddlebrook Shopping Center in Alpharetta and the Hormel Atlanta Plant in Tucker.
Follow the tour here .
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