Chuseok, Korea's Thanksgiving equivalent, runs from September 21-23 this year. At this time of year Seoul gets very quiet as millions of people head back to their hometowns to spend the holidays eating rice cakes and watching dramas with family. I've read that the 5 hour drive to Busan turns into a 24 hour trip with all the holiday traffic. No thanks! We're spending our holiday in Beijing, though we expect things to be just as crazy at the airport tomorrow.
All month long stores have been devoting a lot of square footage to the sale of gift sets. When Koreans go home for the holidays they will often bring a gift set with them for the folks, and businesses will typically give their employees a gift set too. At our local E-Mart, the foreign foods aisle of the grocery department (the ginger ale!) was deemed expendable and was replaced with stacks and stacks of overpriced seemingly useless gift sets. We buy a lot of gift sets at home too, usually of the bubble bath variety, but Korean gift sets are a bit more unique.
Everyone loves a fruit basket, and Koreans are no different. How about a set of 4 cantaloupes for 97,000 Won (roughly $90 CAN)? If that's a little rich for your blood you could always go with 6 apples for 65,000 Won, but don't be a cheapskate- it's Chuseok after all!
This mushroom gift set for the ajumma in your life comes with it's original growin' dirt for a mere 890,000 Won ($800 CAN). Think of the jigaes you could make!
Mixed nuts for 130,000 Won ($115 CAN). Hey aren't these free at the hof when you buy a draft?
I don't know who would waste their $300 on this fish gift set... it doesn't even include the eyes! I expect a "fish eye gift set" was probably sold in the next aisle somewhere.
If any of my Korean BFFs or students out there want to know what they can get me for Chuseok this year, it's not too late to run to E-Mart and pick up this $3,000 CAN set of wine. I'm worth it!
Korea isn't the only country that loves gift sets. In Taiwan we received essence of shark's cartilage gift sets.
But the best set of all has to be the Spam gift set. I took this picture more than 4 years ago in Korea... it was probably one of the first laugh-out-loud products we'd seen here. I just couldn't imagine what kind of lucky soul would receive such a wonderful gift, but then I got my Chuseok gift from work on Friday:
...and there couldn't have been a bigger smile on my face.
In the land of fish sets, mushroom sets and nut sets, nothing could have made me as happy as to receive my very own Spam gift set!!! Oh, the privilege I felt as I peeled off the shiny SPAM sticker to gaze at the tinned meat within. Happy Chuseok, everyone!
All month long stores have been devoting a lot of square footage to the sale of gift sets. When Koreans go home for the holidays they will often bring a gift set with them for the folks, and businesses will typically give their employees a gift set too. At our local E-Mart, the foreign foods aisle of the grocery department (the ginger ale!) was deemed expendable and was replaced with stacks and stacks of overpriced seemingly useless gift sets. We buy a lot of gift sets at home too, usually of the bubble bath variety, but Korean gift sets are a bit more unique.
Everyone loves a fruit basket, and Koreans are no different. How about a set of 4 cantaloupes for 97,000 Won (roughly $90 CAN)? If that's a little rich for your blood you could always go with 6 apples for 65,000 Won, but don't be a cheapskate- it's Chuseok after all!
This mushroom gift set for the ajumma in your life comes with it's original growin' dirt for a mere 890,000 Won ($800 CAN). Think of the jigaes you could make!
Mixed nuts for 130,000 Won ($115 CAN). Hey aren't these free at the hof when you buy a draft?
I don't know who would waste their $300 on this fish gift set... it doesn't even include the eyes! I expect a "fish eye gift set" was probably sold in the next aisle somewhere.
If any of my Korean BFFs or students out there want to know what they can get me for Chuseok this year, it's not too late to run to E-Mart and pick up this $3,000 CAN set of wine. I'm worth it!
Korea isn't the only country that loves gift sets. In Taiwan we received essence of shark's cartilage gift sets.
But the best set of all has to be the Spam gift set. I took this picture more than 4 years ago in Korea... it was probably one of the first laugh-out-loud products we'd seen here. I just couldn't imagine what kind of lucky soul would receive such a wonderful gift, but then I got my Chuseok gift from work on Friday:
...and there couldn't have been a bigger smile on my face. In the land of fish sets, mushroom sets and nut sets, nothing could have made me as happy as to receive my very own Spam gift set!!! Oh, the privilege I felt as I peeled off the shiny SPAM sticker to gaze at the tinned meat within. Happy Chuseok, everyone!
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