It's time for gift wrapped Spam to place under the Tannenbaum.
The waygookin's comment on the site is illustrative: SPAM was developed and produced in my hometown....Austin, MN. And after eating this (food?) every way known to mankind, I can assure that if someone put this under my Xmas tree, it would end up in an orphanage.(Ha ha ha) Good in an emergency and that's about it. If you could see the production line in the plant, you would never eat it.
I also thought SPAM went/was going out of business before I came to Korea.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2007/12/123_15098.htmlBy Jane Han
Staff Reporter
An icon of American culture, Spam ― turning 70 this year ― has seeped into the local kitchen most noticeably over the past two decades, spiced up with a slightly different taste and a different reputation.
Often ridiculed in the its hometown, Hormel Foods' Spam finds itself more appreciated in South Korea, which is one of the best-selling markets among the 45 countries it's sold in.
The local distributor CJ says its annual Spam sales amount to 80 billion won, pushed with a 10 percent growth rate each year. And the tinned ham and pork meat bites out a little over 50 percent of the entire canned food market.
So why do the blue-and-yellow cans make the local eaters' mouths water?
``Well, it tastes good for one thing,'' said CJ spokesman TJ Min, adding that the easy-to-cook meat had marked its place in local kitchen cupboards even before the product was legally sold here.
Before CJ bought the rights to independently manufacture here in 1987, consumers bought Spam on the black market. But, many say the canned good's popularity dates back even further, to when American GIs first introduced what was promoted as ``the miracle meat'' during the Korean War.
Since then, the gelatinous meat has been most commonly enjoyed with steaming white rice, eggs and gimchi, rather than in sandwiches as it is in the U.S. and Europe.
And another attention-grabbing difference from the Western markets is that, here, Spam is a considered as an ideal holiday gift.
``About 8 million cans are sold during ``Chuseok'' (Korean thanksgiving) and the year-end holidays,'' said Min. ``Despite the strong eat-well attitude here, Spam gifts have really become a mega trend.''
A Spam gift set of 12 cans is priced around 45,000 won and about one million boxes are sold annually, he added.
While most credit its tastiness to Spam's success, some also say the catchy and short name appeals to Korean eaters.
The original name comes from Hormel ``SPiced hAM'' and was left the same as part of local sales conditions.
However, the mother company of the luncheon meat had its share of issues over the name that quickly became a description for unsolicited electronic junk mail in the mid-1990s.
After recently losing a trademark lawsuit, the meatpacking company seems to have accepted the widespread use of the word, as it even features in its company museum the story of how the word first started being used on the Internet.
The precooked favorite, which sold its six billionth can in 2002, is working toward its next big figure.
As there are more than 200 Spam gifts, from T-shirts, alarm clocks to boxers, sold online by Hormel for Spam fans that have an official fan club with more than 9,000 members, CJ officials say maybe the local consumer base will also grow that kind of enthusiasm for the pink meat.
