Well, we were at our favourite Chinese restaurant yesterday and had our usual Pepper Beef, Roast Duck, and Hot and Sour Soup....delicious. And the owner always knows exactly what we will order and has a very nice reasonable Australian Shiraz on hand for us. I think we got the best of this food exchange deal. I was reading about the popularity of SPAM for Koreans in the Desert Sun the other day.
I didn't know SPAM was so popular with Koreans until I saw that display in H-Market in Vancouver but it seems it was the US Military connection that got it all going.
Some of these are almost tempting to try. I might not be able to resist "Stinky French Garlic".
"Spam was first introduced overseas by way of the U.S. military during World War II. Its long shelf life and convenient pull tab tin container made Spam a GI staple when a million pounds of Spam were shipped overseas. In the 1950s, Spam also was sent with troops during the Korean War. By the end of the war, however, South Korea had plunged into crushing poverty. Meat was scarce, and obtaining a tin of Spam was not only unaffordable for most Koreans, it also required a military connection.
Resourceful Koreans were able to find scraps of discarded Spam near military encampments, said Byong Moon Kim, a Korean War historian based in Shoreview, Minn. At the time, Koreans could only afford to eat meat during their two major holidays. Spam became revered as a special treat and represented nutrition and fortune.
Tins of Spam eventually made it to the black market, but at an inflated cost. Some U.S. troops gave out their extra rations of Spam as a humanitarian act amidst the widespread hunger. Spam’s shiny packaging appealed in a country where anything new and foreign was a novelty."
