fudge

When Only Slabs of Pink, Jellied Byproduct Will Do
Barbara Demick -- Los Angeles Times

SEOUL - Stroll into an expensive department store and walk straight past
the $180 watermelon with a ribbon twirled just so around its stem. Don't
bother with the tea in a butterfly-shaped tin for $153, or with the gift
boxes of Belgian chocolates or French cheeses.

If you're looking for a gift that bespeaks elegance and taste, you might
try Spam. The luncheon meat might be the subject of satire back home in
the U.S., but in South Korea, it is positively classy. With $136 million
in sales, South Korea is the largest market in the world for Spam
outside the United States. But here, some consider the pink luncheon
meat with its gelatinous shell too nice to buy for themselves, and 40%
of the Spam is purchased as gifts.

Especially during the holidays, you can see the blue-and-yellow cans
neatly stacked in the aisles of the better stores. South Koreans are
nearly as passionate about packaging as the Japanese are, and the Spam
often comes wrapped in boxed sets. A set of 12 cans costs $44.

"Spam really is a luxury item," said Han Geun Rae, 43, an impeccably
dressed fashion buyer who was loading gift boxes of Spam into a cart at
the Shinsegae department store before the recent Chusok holiday.

Chusok is the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, and the biggest
gift-giving occasion of the year here. On this holiday alone, Korean
distributor CJ Corp. estimates, 8 million cans of Spam change hands.

Han's intended recipients were her employees, among them a young single
man and a married woman with children. "Everybody loves it," Han said.
"It is so easy and convenient."

She was expecting to get her own complement of Spam as well - in
previous Chusok seasons, about a third of gifts she received were food
sets that contained at least one can of Spam. "My children are in high
school and they love it," she said. "I cook it in jjigae stew with
kimchi.

"It goes very nicely with red wine," said another shopper, 44-year-old
Kim Hwa Yeon, a stockbroker in a crisp navy blue suit and pearls, who
said she was buying for clients.

Spam's success in South Korea is one of those cultural mysteries - a bit
like the reverence for Jerry Lewis in France - where an image is
improved in translation. South Koreans take their Spam quite seriously
and seem mystified as to why it is a subject of parody among Americans.

"I can't understand what is funny about Spam," said Jeon Pyoung Soo, a
CJ Corp. executive who is brand manager here for Spam.

Jeon recalled a recent visit to Austin, Minn., where Spam's
manufacturer, Hormel Foods Corp., has created a museum devoted to the
history and cult of Spam. Highlights include a 1970 Monty Python skit in
which a group of Vikings drowns out all other conversation with a chorus
of "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam." (The skit is credited with the word "spam"
coming into use to mean unsolicited e-mails that likewise clog a
computer's inbox.)

"Everybody was laughing and smiling but me," said the 27-year-old Jeon,
who went to business school in the United States and is fluent in
English. "I knew all the words, but I didn't get the joke."

Not coincidentally, Spam is also popular in Hawaii, the Philippines,
Okinawa, Guam and Saipan, all places with a history of a U.S. military
presence. The "Miracle Meat in a Can," as it was touted after its launch
in 1937, was a staple of the GI diet during World War II and the 1950-53
Korean War.

Until 1987, South Koreans had to buy black-market cans of Spam that had
been diverted from U.S. military bases. Then CJ Corp. bought the rights
from Hormel and began producing its own version at a factory south of
Seoul.

In the postwar years, Spam was a special treat for South Koreans, who
could rarely afford meat and didn't have refrigeration at home. It is
harder to explain its cachet today in the world's 11th-largest economy,
where there is no shortage of fresh meat and things associated with the
U.S. military are considered low class.

Moreover, other American brands haven't done well here, perhaps because
South Koreans have a strong attachment to their own cuisine, as is
evident to anyone who has seen them carrying their own stocks of kimchi
while traveling abroad.

"There are so many cases where foreign brands have failed. Kellogg's
cereals, for example. It was not possible to pass on American breakfast
tastes to Koreans," said Kim Tai Joon, the head of the processed-meat
division of CJ Corp. "But we have adapted Spam to the Korean food
culture to the point that people think of it as a Korean food."

The South Korean version of Spam has less salt than the American recipe,
and somewhat different spices. Koreans don't eat it in sandwiches like
Americans do, but rather fried with rice or in a soup or stew. Sometimes
it is rolled into kimbab, the Korean version of sushi.

"It is easy for old people and children to chew," said Choi Hyun Ju, a
28-year-old sales clerk who was wearing a red miniskirt and high white
boots to promote Spam at the Shinsegae store, when asked to explain
Spam's popularity.

Back in Minnesota, even some Hormel executives find it difficult to
explain why their product is so admired abroad.

"It is a curious thing about Spam that in the Far East, it is taken very
seriously, while in the United States, particularly on college campuses,
it has this quirky, kitschy retro feel to it," said Julie Craven, public
relations manager for Hormel.

Long ago, the company decided that since it couldn't elevate Spam's
image at home, it might as well embrace its cult status. The company
runs a Spam fan club, sells products ranging from Spam pajamas to books
such as "The 100 Best Spam Jokes," and has released collector's-edition
cans to mark last year's opening of the Broadway musical "Spamalot,"
which lampoons both the meat product and the Monty Python movies.

"When it comes to Spam," Craven said, "we get the joke."

F.J.) Nothing like lips and arseholes to perk up those special meals. You
serious foodies out there should lay in a couple skids of this delicacy
just in case!!!! Give them chicken shit and call it caviar!!!!

Farmer John

damsel in dis dress

Victor posted this a few days ago. Pay attention, son!

Carol