With Chuseok coming up in a few days, that means the return of the Spam Gift Set! For realz, every single supermarket has these boxes prominently displayed for customers hoping to give their relatives and coworkers the gift of heart disease. Sure, it's one of those ridiculous and amusing sights that make you laugh and say "only in Korea..." but it's also quite distressing at the same time. Here, spam is marketed and packaged in such a way as to make people forget what it actually is (not that anyone really knows what Spam is anyway...), and it has been elevated it to near majestic status. I'm not sure whether to be impressed or disturbed.
One may be tempted to purchase one of these Spam gift sets, just for the novelty or the hilarity of it all, but how about foregoing the neatly packaged containers of saturated fat and sodium (not to mention, cruelty and suffering) this year, and going with one of the numerous better options out there? Your loved ones' health will thank you for it.
Dried shiitake mushrooms
Assorted nuts and seeds
Traditional cakes & snacks
nut/seed bars
Ginseng
And my personal favorite: fresh fruit!
Happy Chuseok!