Okay. Gather ‘round, kiddies and learn how Auntie Julie circumvented Korean law.
Picture this: Kangdonggu, Seoul, 2000. I get off the plane after a trip home, and check through customs. Little do they know, I have a block of Empire Cheese Cheddar in my suitcase. That and a case of Kraft Dinner.
The KD has been emptied into individual baggies, with a cheese pouch in each. The cheese is wrapped in waxed paper and clean underpants.
The KD is just not available. The cheese is forbidden by the import laws and dairy regulations to prevent foreign bacteria.
Also, two jumbo boxes of Claritin, which is also not available.
None of this trips security.
I get to my digs and unload the contraband.
Over the next year, the KD is a welcome gift to new teachers, and when I run out of Claritin, Mom sends me more, but labels it “books” on the shipping label.
Me own sweet Ma, law-abiding Church lady, shipping me contraband allergy medication like it was cocaine.
In the meanwhile, if you were craving certain Western products like KD, Doritos, Deodorant, or other luxuries, you went to a little hole-in-the-wall shop in Kildong called Black Market Ajumma’s.
These merchants would “acquire” items that “fell off a truck” on their way to the Itaewon American military base PX. They resold them to desperate foreigners and curious locals. Very much an open secret. When Lays Korea began making their own Doritos, it really cut business for the BMAs.
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Picture this: Kangdonggu, Seoul, 2000. I get off the plane after a trip home, and check through customs. Little do they know, I have a block of Empire Cheese Cheddar in my suitcase. That and a case of Kraft Dinner.
The KD is just not available. The cheese is forbidden by the import laws and dairy regulations to prevent foreign bacteria.
None of this trips security.
I get to my digs and unload the contraband.
Over the next year, the KD is a welcome gift to new teachers, and when I run out of Claritin, Mom sends me more, but labels it “books” on the shipping label.
In the meanwhile, if you were craving certain Western products like KD, Doritos, Deodorant, or other luxuries, you went to a little hole-in-the-wall shop in Kildong called Black Market Ajumma’s.
Because a girl needs her cheese.