Rarely has a snack food been the target of so thorough a fisking as the one Kevin of IA unleashes upon the Choco Pie of Tong Yang Confectionery Corporation. Money shot:
Korea (as well as pretty much all of Asia) has a long history of imitating anything and everything that falls off the Western culture wagon. For almost every major American food product, there is an equivalent Korean ripoff, generally poorly made and cheap, which tastes like shit stains. That, I have no problem with.
What I do have a problem with, are the producers of those imitations claiming credit, making up bullshit stories and seeking media attention as if they did anything more than haul a few of the products back from the states at the end of their “exposure to western ideas and technology tour.”
Frankly, I wouldn’t go as far as Kevin in ripping East Asia’s “long history of imitating anything and everything that falls off the Western culture wagon” - I think there’s a fair amount of adaption to local conditions going on when East Asian societies import cultural products and ideas from the West, and the West itself has a long and time-honored tradition of borrowing rather freely from non-Western societies without really acknowledging it (ask any Muslim). But the bulk of Kevin’s criticism of the Choco Pie rings true - it’s a fuckin’ Moon Pie, for Christ’s sake, and Tong Yang should be ashamed for trying to pass it off as anything other than a ripoff.
4 Comments
No, Choco Pies are not moon pies. The original moon pies were shaped
like a half moon, were made of soft sponge cake folded over, with
cream in the middle.
Unlike Choco Pies, they were not round, not covered in chocolate, and
the cream was not sandwiched between two pieces of a hard cookie-like
substance.
What they may be an imitation of, however, are Japanese Choco Pies,
which are identical except they don’t have a zigzag white stripe
on the top.
Just to add to what Kevin said, I consumed much more than my fair share of Moon Pies when I was a kid - there were stains on the ceiling of the den, left when I got one stuck up there, for something like 20 years. So I speak with a fair amount of authority when I say that there is no difference what so ever between Moon Pies and Choco Pies, with the possible exception that the American version was a tad sweeter. Choco Pies may be famous throughout the Far East, but there is no denying their roots. Fuck, if the Koreans can bitch about the Japanese “stealing” kimchi, I can bitch about the Koreans stealing ??째??? ???????쨀쩌?????쨍 ??쨍?흸흸??쨈, damn it!
I agree completely with you Kevin but I don’t trust the moonpie company completely. As you show the Choco pie people are full of it probably the Moon pie people are too. That miner story sounds apocryphal to me. It is a great story to sell pies to the working man but I doubt the inspiration was really that colorful. I can remember eating moonpies from the early 70s though and they were definitely as you and the company have described them to be.
How ridiculous is this I am discussing the validity of historical sources for moon pies. I think I need a break from my studies. Thank you for the fun read.
I can’t believe I’m actually talking about this, but:
It’s important to distinguish between conception and execution. Copying is execution - nothing wrong with it, and it’s an essential part of economic competition. The differences between Moon and Choco Pies are ones of execution.
What the Choco Pie people are claiming is that they came up with the idea themselves. That goes to conception, and, in the United States, such claims, if shown untrue, might make the company liable for deceptive advertising or unfair competition under state law.
Just my 2 cents…