Like Korean food? Try a little Spam with your kimchi

The advertisement begins with a breezy acoustic-guitar jingle and a young woman peering into soft light. Its message is clear: The product you're about to see is special. It's called Spam.

So you like a bit of Korean tucker. Well get down to Woolies and get your Spam. That United States composition of a gelatinous slab of pork shoulder, ham, salt and potato starch is, so National Public Radio tells us, has a revered status in Korea. The network's Seoul correspondent reports:

The dish has been a staple in supermarkets here for years. Customers buy it in bulk packages and as fancy holiday gift boxes. They eat it fried in egg batter, atop steaming rice or with kimchi (fermented vegetables) wrapped in gim (seaweed), among many recipes. Spam is also an ingredient in a popular spicy stew.

Dates back to the aftermath of the Korean War more than 60 years ago apparently when U.S. soldiers introduced it on the peninsula. How to eat it?

Perhaps the most iconic Spam dish in South Korea is a spicy soup known as budae jjigae, or army stew. After the war, Koreans used U.S. Army rations — sometimes smuggled off military bases or donated by soldiers — to make the deep-red dish.
This concoction comes in many varieties. Restaurants use a mix of hot spices, noodles, Spam, sausage, beans, corn, green vegetables — even cheese.

And don't forget that Poms like it too.
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