Spam -- It's What Koreans Crave for New Year

[FunnyJohn]

The Lunar New Year begins this Friday and apparently, in Korea, Spam is more than appropriate as a gift :

"SEOUL, South Korea "” As the Lunar New Year holiday approaches, Seoul's increasingly well-heeled residents are scouring store shelves for tastefully wrapped boxes of culinary specialties. Among their favorite choices: imported wines, choice cuts of beef, rare herbal teas. And Spam."

I need to verify this with my Korean buds.  I'm guessing this may be a legacy of the Korean War, when other meat was in short supply, Spam may have been available, and for some, it becomes an acquired taste. [ see Hawaii] And now that I have read the article I see my assumption is correct.   

[lperry]

Well, it *is* the year of the horse...

[thistle]

I was going back through my bookmarks, & I was mystified as to why I saved a recipe for homemade spam (I don't know if I've ever eaten spam...I have had potted meat, which surely is worse).

[goodeats]

It is true, I'm pretty sure. We like pressed meat, and it's not just a Korean thing. It's cheap, salty, pretty tasty, and goes well with rice. Can't ask for more than that!

[Barbara]

My Dad was a POW during WWII and for some reason having to do with that, he hated Spam. So, my Mother only used it when he wasn't home--and even then, it was the "gourmet" thing, broiled with canned pineapple slices.  Still, this whole thread has made me think about getting a can and seeing what I can do with it.

You know, to celebrate Korean New Year . . . or something.

[FunnyJohn]

Somewhere there must be a recipe for Korean Fried Spam

[MsDiPesto]

Spamâ„¢ Misubi sounds good, I even bought a plastic "mold" off eBay to make it. I have yet to make it.  My understanding is that during WWII, there was Spamâ„¢, and another, similar, but very much inferior product, and the dislike of the inferior product rubbed off on Spamâ„¢ a bit.

Here's a history of how Spamâ„¢ made it to Korea.

Did you know that there is a site with Spamâ„¢ haikus?

The color of Spamâ„¢
Is natural as the sky:
A block of sunrise

Pink tender morsel
Glistening with salty gel
What the hell is it?

Old man seeks doctor
"I eat Spamâ„¢ daily," he says
Angioplasty

Pink beefy temptress
I can no longer remain
Vegetarian

As long as we're on the subject, Cecil Adams in his The Straight Dope column has discussed a somewhat morbid rumor associated with Spamâ„¢:

Turning to Theroux's Happy Isles (1992), we find the following:

"It was a theory of mine that former cannibals of Oceania now feasted on Spam because Spamâ„¢ came the nearest to approximating the porky taste of human flesh. "˜Long pig' as they called a cooked human being in much of Melanesia. It was a fact that the people-eaters of the Pacific had all evolved, or perhaps degenerated, into Spam-eaters. And in the absence of Spamâ„¢ they settled for corned beef, which also had a corpsy flavor."

However, this was cleared up in the same article:

Cecil, my man!

You were right the first time. Yes, it is a joke. In spite of my solemn declaration in The Happy Isles of Oceania, the voracious Spamâ„¢ consumption in the Pacific is not conclusive evidence of a cannibal past.

And I enjoyed seeing my laborious joke cleverly adumbrated in yet another of your witty, wide-ranging, and inexhaustibly erudite columns.

But also, speaking as a vegetarian, all meat-eating looks to me like the first step down the road to anthropophagy.

With good wishes, Paul Theroux

[FunnyJohn]

As long as we're on the subject, Cecil Adams in his The Straight Dope column has discussed a somewhat morbid rumor associated with Spamâ„¢:

Turning to Theroux's Happy Isles (1992), we find the following:

However, this was cleared up in the same article:

"It was a theory of mine that former cannibals of Oceania now feasted on Spam because Spamâ„¢ came the nearest to approximating the porky taste of human flesh. "˜Long pig' as they called a cooked human being in much of Melanesia. It was a fact that the people-eaters of the Pacific had all evolved, or perhaps degenerated, into Spam-eaters. And in the absence of Spamâ„¢ they settled for corned beef, which also had a corpsy flavor."

Cecil, my man!

You were right the first time. Yes, it is a joke. In spite of my solemn declaration in The Happy Isles of Oceania, the voracious Spamâ„¢ consumption in the Pacific is not conclusive evidence of a cannibal past.

And I enjoyed seeing my laborious joke cleverly adumbrated in yet another of your witty, wide-ranging, and inexhaustibly erudite columns.

But also, speaking as a vegetarian, all meat-eating looks to me like the first step down the road to anthropophagy.

With good wishes, Paul Theroux

Love the euphemism for a cooked human.  [now getting way off topic]:  One of my colleagues while he was an officer in the USAF escorted a group of Israeli senior officers on a tour of East Coast Air Bases.  When they got to Georgia, one of the Israelis pulled my colleague aside and confessed that he had heard how great barbecue in the southern U.S. is and asked if it would be possible for the group to go to a Barbecue "restaurant".  My colleague delicately asked the Israeli if he was aware what kind of meat was served at barbecue "restaurants", and the Israeli said that he did indeed, and all that was necessary to make it "Kosher" would be to refer to the meat in question as "small cow".  They went to a small Mom & Pop establishment and my colleage ordered small cow sandwiches for everyone.  The puzzled waitress asked in a thick Georgian accent "Small Cow?  What is that!?"  He repied just bring us some barbecue on a bun and let's not discuss this further.

[thistle]

A Top Chef spam quickfire in Hawaii? http://eater.com/archives/2014/01/28/top-cheffage-97.php

Almost makes me want to start watching again, instead of tivo'ing & reading the results online.