As the Feetman Seoul states, Christmas is a romantic holiday in Korea and Japan. The music you hear everywhere is not Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.” It’s more likely “Last Christmas (I Gave You My Heart)” and other post-1980 Christmas pop songs that have love themes to them.
I remember hearing that KFC had successfully promoted itself as a holiday tradition in Japan years ago.
In Korea, the food everyone has to buy is the Christmas cake.
There’s no special ingredient in a Christmas cake. It’s like any of the other cakes bakeries sell. It’s all in the design.
And you know, this is one Christmas tradition that I think would be nice back in the West. We do have a special desserts, usually involving a mess o’ cloves, cinnamon, and other spices. Yet the presentation side is a bit spare. A bundt pan is as fancy as you’re going to get.
The killer app for an East-meets-West Christmas would be the flavors of an Olde World European spice cake using the over-the-top decoration techniques of Korea and Japan.
That bear would really taste good.
I’d disagree with those Guardian folks. It’s not as “scary” as much as it’s the antithesis of what happens back home. We have great seasonal cakes, pies and other desserts but, yes, decoration is lacking. However, let’s not forget the huge feasts that usually go with Christmas – can we really expect such over the top decorations?
In Korea, it’s completely overdone and gaudy. However, that’s the best part of these cakes because the taste is absolutely flat and non-nuanced. It’s just sugar on top of sugar…ugh. I’ll pass.
This Christmas I was lucky enough to have authentic German Stollen and Glühwein during the desert course 😉
This season I have actually had all the cakes in your pictures, plus a christmas cheesecake from Costco.
noce picture but are they real???
nice picture but which part of korea did you brought???are they yummy???