I ate some spam

I've often wondered what spam is like, and I've seen it in supermarkets plenty of times. I've always been put off by its reputation, but it's in every supermarket so obviously some people like it. It can't be selling solely by the power of morbid curiosity. So today, I decided, was the day. I would eat some spam.

The first thing that hit me when I opened the can was the smell. I was reminded rather unpleasantly of cat food. Fortunately the smell dissipates relatively quickly, and after unsticking the edges of the "meat" from the can I was able to get it out on one piece by shaking it a few times.

It doesn't look appetising, but it's not that much different in appearance than ham. It's a lot softer and squishier though, and that's a bit off-putting. I cut off a small slice and tried it.

It's really, really salty. It has almost no texture at all, and the flavour could best be described, I think, as salt with a dash of ham. It's not inedible. It's not even particularly offensive. I like salt. I can't imagine eating the huge slabs of it depicted in the serving suggestion on the can, but in thin slices it seems... OK?

I made myself a sandwich with some mustard, tomato, spam and pepper. I cut it very thin because I didn't want it to be too salty, with the result that I couldn't taste it very well. It was still quite salty.

Now, having finished my sandwich, I sense a sort of lingering processed meat flavour. I'll probably eat a bit more of it anyway, because it's not terrible and I've bought it now, but I won't be buying it again. And at $12.65/kg I really don't understand why anyone does. You can get ham almost that cheap. Or sandwich steaks. Who's seeing those options and deciding to go with spam? Who eats this stuff?