Local Chef Dale Talde Takes On Spam

When it comes to breakfast items, we know chef Dale Talde can bring it. We could eat the breakfast ramen at his local restaurant, Talde (369 7th Avenue) every day of the week, and the McDowell’s Griddle at his North Slope joint Pork Slope (247 5th Avenue) is just about the perfect hangover food. So what can the guy do with Spam?

That’s what the folks at BuzzFeed recently asked, and the chef whipped up a breakfast dish that is making us really hungry even though we just ate lunch. Unfortunately, the only way you’re going to taste his Spam and kimchee fried rice is if you make it yourself — check out the recipe here — because it’s not going to be on any of his menus anytime soon:

“I’m just predisposed to loving Spam,” Talde says. “It is a major protein in the Philippines.” And while he doesn’t serve Spam at his restaurants (because actually, Spam is EXPENSIVE these days), his cooking is heavily influenced by his upbringing as a first-generation American with parents born in the Philippines. He cooks Asian food with a decidedly Middle American twist.

Of course, if you’re not up for cooking, you can find a restaurant-level version (with the apparently more economical ingredient of un-canned meat) at Talde during brunch — the sausage, egg, and cheese fried rice will run you $10, and it’s pretty delicious (though why you’d stray from the breakfast ramen, we don’t know).