{"id":281,"date":"2015-01-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yule-tide.generalsemiotics.net\/index.php\/2015\/01\/17\/post-274-malaysia-singapore-korea-cookie-mystery\/"},"modified":"2015-01-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-17T00:00:00","slug":"post-274-malaysia-singapore-korea-cookie-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/2015\/01\/17\/post-274-malaysia-singapore-korea-cookie-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-274: Malaysia-Singapore-Korea Cookie Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"
Here is a mystery.<\/p>\n

Currant Butter Cookies (600 calories)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>— White Castle — “Traditional Recipe”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
Made in Penang, Malaysia
Imported by Singapore
Ended up in Incheon, South Korea, selling for 1,000 Won (=90 U.S. cents) in January 2015, where it was bought by me.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/div>\n

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\"Picture\"<\/a> <\/p>\n
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.<\/font><\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read More<\/font><\/strong><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> <\/div>\n
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The mystery is, how can anyone make a profit selling snacks shipped from so far away at such low prices? What kind of sense does that make?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

These “White Castle” cookies were sold in wha<\/span><\/span><\/span>t I’d describe as a “foreign snack mini-warehouse” in Incheon. I’ve seen similar places in Seoul and in Gwangju.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Only foreign snacks are sold in these.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The “store” was strange. There was a<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> makeshift, “questionably legal enterprise” feel to it, like a streetside pirated-DVD-selling operation. No proper shelves. Snacks for sale crammed in boxes on the floor or<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> haphazardly sprawled out on<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> shabby tables; prices scrawled on bits of cardboard with a black marker. No receipt given.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>No pleasantries from the girl at the cash register. Cash only. Don’t stick around. This is a lower standard of things that you’d find in much poorer countries; South Korea is among the world’s richest today.

I also got a large package of Oreo-type cookies called “Borneo”. It declares itself to be a “Crispy Cocoa Biscuit” snack with “Vanilla Flavoured Cream”. Borneo is an island, full of jungles I guess, divided between Malaysia and Indonesia. I got Borneo (780 calories) for 1,000 Won (90 U.S. cents) as well. I thought it was funny that Malaysia would make a snack using the name of its own wild jungle-filled island. But here is the funny part. “Borneo” is made in Turkey.
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<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is a mystery. Currant Butter Cookies (600 calories) — White Castle — “Traditional Recipe” Made in Penang, Malaysia Imported by Singapore Ended up in Incheon, South Korea, selling for 1,000 Won (=90 U.S. cents) in January 2015, where it was bought by me. . Read More The mystery is, how can anyone make a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}