Sue Hyon Bae — When Westerners first came to Korea, we said they smelled bad because they carried the miasma of meat-eaters. We don’t notice anymore because we’ve grown rich enough to be meat-eaters too. We can afford grilled pork belly and marinated beef short ribs on the dinner table, but the best school lunches are topped with fried SPAM. — SPAM has only six ingredients: pork with ham (this counts as one), salt, water, potato starch, sugar, sodium nitrite. SPAM.com suggests in its recipe section: SPAM Fries, SPAM Fried Nice!, SPAMLT, SPAM Mmmmusubi, and SPAM Cheesecake. — The tastes acquired in famine are passed down from generation to generation. We still eat bitter spring herbs as though we had never stopped being peasants whose harvests didn’t last long enough. My parents treated my illnesses with red meat as though I were wasting away with anemia. I was born after the famine years, but I still can’t throw away a single grain of rice. My archetype for Western civilization is Bernini’s David, taut Herculean thighs and twisted torso topped by marble grimace, ready to fling — some goddamn culture into your face.
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Crab Orchard Review