Scott! I can't tell you how exciting it was to see my name in this essay! Thank you so much for linking to my episode with Helen - she was a great guest and definitely did some research on the topic.

I probably mentioned this in the podcast, but to bolster one of the points in your post: my grandma is kama'āina and though she hasn't lived in Hawai'i since the 1950s, she's still too embarrassed to eat Spam in front of mainlanders. But she loves it the most.

Have you ever been to Salt Lake City? There are a fair number of Hawaiian and Pacific Islander restaurants there. It's definitely the most interesting thing about SLC's food offerings (it can't really be called a food scene), and yet it doesn't seem like most locals know how special it is. Still, between my mom living there, and having grown up in Seattle and now being near Gardena/Torrance in LA County (and Little Tokyo downtown), I've been relatively Spam-blessed in my life.

Thank you again for the mention, and for writing this piece. It's so interesting!