It was such a great feeling to watch the successful opening of the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Thirty years ago, I was in South Korea, for the Summer Olympics.
Of course, I was too young to understand the true meaning behind the Olympics - which is "to build a peaceful and better world in the Olympic Spirit which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play."
And, I remember being a pain in the butt by continuously asking my nanny when could we leave the venue at the ceremony. I was probably thinking about the buffet and the chocolate back at the hotel. You see, I love to eat since little, lol!
To be honest, the most memorable moment on this trip was my discovery of the ever so wonderful Spam! Yes, you heard me right Spam - the canned meat. I remember eating them in various styles on this trip - pan fried, stewed, minced and etc. I was also gifted with a Spam gift set when I was leaving the country.
In my pantry, I have two cans of Spam:
Not sure if you know that Spam is a staple of South Korean's life. If I am not mistaken they are the biggest consumers of it besides Hawaii. Unfortunately, Spam has such a bad reputation in North America.
When I was at university in Canada, I took my Canadian roommates to another international student's home for dinner. He was from South Korea and he served us Spam. My roommates freaked out and refused to eat any - I was sooooo shocked to see their reactions! Years later, they still talked about how gross it was just to look at Spam, lol.
I supposed Spam has a bad reputation because people thinks Spam is gross and low quality. Perhaps, it's also believed that's what the poor eat as they were given as meat substitutions in welfare food boxes.
Here is a photo from an article "The 8 Absolute Most Disgusting Old Recipe Ads" (Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/copyranter/the-8-most-disgusting-old-food-recipe-ads?utm_term=.np5jMQGrv#.veNmB9zZy)
So, yeah, the average North American won't eat Spam, unless you are Asian North American or Hawaiian. In fact, Spam has always been joked about. I couldn't help but wonder how the word “spam” came to mean “junk message” or “junk mail” too - Is it because of Spam, the canned meat??!!
To be fair though, in my opinion, Spam does not taste bad at all. To me, it is part of my childhood and therefore, has a special place in my heart. So yeah, I would say that I love Spam, but I try not to eat too much.
Here is more info about Spam from the can I have at home:
So, I do understand why no middle class health conscious folks would eat Spam. At the same time, I also understand why South Korean loves Spam.
Indeed, the South Korean has a love affair with Spam. If I am not mistaken, Spam was introduced to South Korea by the US army during the Korean War, when food was scarce.
Back then, people used whatever they could find to make a meal. I have read that people made stew from Spam smuggled from the US army base. Ever heard of the famous Army Stew from South Korea? Since then, it has become part of South Korea's culinary landscape and it is also part of the war history. I believe it reminds them of the hard time during the war and motivates them to become a strong nation today!
So, do you spam, or not? Hahaha.