SPAMsgiving

It's almost Chuseok weekend here in Korea. Which means families across the country are getting ready to celebrate their thanksgiving by preparing hearty, homemade meals and practicing centuries-old traditions.

One of the traditions, I've learned, is that families give each other gifts of food during Chuseok. These gifts are either homemade or purchased at local stores... and they come in a variety of styles and packages.

Last week I was wandering around E-Mart... which, for those of you who don't know, can be compared to Wal-Mart.... except that in Korea, E-Mart has much higher prices. Department stores here are pretty popular and, if you're not careful, they can be quite expensive.

C and I were looking for some wine, when she pointed out a bunch of young Korean women dressed in traditional hanboks, standing around a giant display of what looked like gift sets.

Question is.... what kind of gift sets are worthy enough to give to families over the holidays?

These kinds of gift sets:

The SPAM gift set
A lifetime supply of mystery meat... or the best present ever?

The Tuna Fish gift set
Tuna is used in a lot of delicious Korean snacks, like Kimbap.

These gifts are pretty practical if you really think about it, I suppose. They range from anywhere between 25,000 wons to 65,000 wons... depending on how big the packs are. The sets even come as vinegar packs and Canola oil packs.

Wonder why the west hasn't thought of this yet... ... ...

xo
SC

Photos courtesy of Journals at WorldNomads and Zen Kimchi