ELLSWORTH — Living on an island means making your own fun and the resourceful residents of Isle au Haut have done just that through “food throwdowns.”

Mailboat Captain Garrett Aldrich began challenging islanders to food competitions years ago.

“If memory serves me right, we were just looking for something fun to do to get passengers on the island,” Aldrich said. “We all like to talk about food. It was a good way for us to be in competition with one another — friendly competition.”

The chefs started — and stayed with — pie for a few competitions, progressing to cake, cheesecake, eggnog, pizza, sandwiches, and were to hold the most recent, a soup competition yesterday, Wednesday, Oct. 1.

But, everyone agrees the food throwdown that drew the biggest crowd was “Spamapalooza” in 2006.

This is not a group of Spam lovers and perhaps therein lay the challenge.

“Our biggest contest was the Spam contest, which was really gross,” said Alison Richardson.

“Let’s face it, it’s meat in a can,” said Kate Shaffer, owner of Black Dinah Chocolatiers on the island. “It’s weird.”

Mailboat Captain Aldrich described Spam as “pretty much a sucky food.”

Hormel, the producer of Spam, describes the product as “meat with a pause button.”

“That was probably the biggest of the cooking contests that the mailboat captain challenged the island to,” said Shaffer. “It’s funny because it was sort of a joke but people are really into spam. They are. I don’t understand it.”

Shaffer tied for first place in Spamapalooza with Diana Santospago, who operates the Inn at Isle au Haut.

Shaffer made Spam and Gruyere doughnuts.

Santospago made Spam and guacamole rollups, which she served with pineapple jalapeno chutney.

“Everybody was like ‘Wow, it’s so weird we just have to try it,’” said Santospago. “Is that a good thing to have won the Spam contest or not?”

Shaffer, when she’s not competing in the island food throwdowns, creates exquisite chocolates. She has a small café and makes doughnuts every Friday at the request of the mailboat captains and fishermen.

Aldrich dared her to make Spam doughnuts. So, she took the dare and it was a success.

Shaffer used a small can of Spam, which she chopped up fine along with Gruyere cheese and diced apple, sweetened with maple sugar to make the doughnuts.

“People kept on coming up to me and saying, ‘You know what, these are really good,’” Shaffer said.

Aldrich competed with his own creation, ‘Spamioli,’ which he served with a white cream sauce.

“I made the pasta myself,” said Aldrich. He made the filling for the Spamioli with spam, which he sautéed with garlic, onion and spices.

“I thought it was excellent,” he said.

Aldrich said Isle au Haut residents are a “bit biased towards us mainlanders, so it’s hard for us to win.”

Richardson carved out of Spam a replica of the mailboat complete with waves and boat captains Aldrich and Josh Weed. She used five or six cans of Spam and toothpicks to carve the boat and pureed some Spam with mayonnaise to create waves.

Shaffer and Santospago shared the prizes for the Spamapalooza — a ribbon crafted out of Spam labels and a bottle of Fat Bastard wine, “with the thought that you would become one if you were to indulge in too much Spam,” Santospago said.

Richardson says the food throwdowns aren’t really competitions.

“We’d talk smack [give each other a hard time] and stuff,” she conceded.

A throwdown last summer morphed into a progressive dinner party with a theme of sevens, Santospago said.

Lisa Turner made seven-onion soup. Someone else made seven-layer salad.

Santospago served the entrée, her take on the feast of the seven fishes.

“Then we ended up at Linda Greenlaw’s for port and cigars,” said Santospago. “We make our own fun out here.”

As far as future food throwdowns, Shaffer and Aldrich are hoping for a Kraft Macaroni and Cheese theme.

“I’ve been really pushing for a Kraft macaroni and cheese contest — something weird — but they keep pushing these gourmet ideas,” said Shaffer.

 

Spam and Guacamole Roll-ups

1 can of Spam Finely chopped red onion 1-2 avocados 1-2 garlic cloves squeeze citrus juice Several flour tortillas Jar of favorite chutney (peach or mango go great) Salt to taste Pepper to taste Mash Spam with a fork. Finely chop as much or as little red onion as you like. Mix these together with enough good mayonnaise to roughly the consistency of tuna salad. Set aside. Spread a flour tortilla with a “thinnish” layer of the Spam, followed with a layer of guacamole. Roll up and slice on the bias. Secure the pinwheels with a toothpick and arrange artfully on a platter with a pot of chutney in the center. Garnish with fresh cilantro. — Diana Santospago