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piqer for: Global finds Health and Sanity Doing Good
Bangalore-based Rashmi Vasudeva's journalism has appeared in many Indian and international publications over the past decade. A features writer with over nine years of experience heading a health and fitness supplement in a mainstream Indian newspaper, her niche areas include health, wellness, fitness, food, nutrition and Indian classical Arts.
Her articles have appeared in various publications including Mint-Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Deccan Herald (mainstream South Indian newspaper), Smart Life (Health magazine from the Malayala Manorama Group of publications), YourStory (India's media technology platform for entrepreneurs), Avantika (a noir arts and theatre magazine), ZDF (a German public broadcasting company) and others.
In 2006, she was awarded the British Print-Chevening scholarship to pursue a short-term course in new-age journalism at the University of Westminster, U.K. With a double Masters in Globalisation and Media Studies from Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales, U.K., she has also dabbled in academics, travel writing and socio-cultural studies. Mother to a frisky toddler, she hums 'wheels on the bus' while working and keeps a beady eye on the aforementioned toddler's antics.
Cuckoo About Cookies: Why Choco Pies Spell Hope And Black-Market Currency In North Korea
Who knew the humble Choco Pies, my daughter's favourite, have such a delicious backstory beneath all that mush!
These series of little tales weave a fascinating narrative of how the icky sweet dessert – marshmallow stuffed between two cookies thickly covered with chocolate – is a symbol of affluence, a black-market currency, a beacon of hope, a geopolitical flashpoint and a racist slang all rolled into one!
For North Koreans, Choco Pies made by the South Korean confectionary company Orion, are, as the author puts it, “a living proof of a better life.” So much so that it was the first thing the 24-year-old North Korean soldier who recently defected to South Korea asked for once he regained consciousness. Orion promised him a lifetime supply and sent him 100 boxes immediately.
Though Choco Pies were available in South Korea as far back as 1974, it was not until 2004 that North Koreans got a taste of them. This happened when the two countries were building a joint industrial zone and South Korean managers of the project gave Choco Pies as snacks to the North Korean labourers, almost all women. These labourers soon began to hoard these pies and sell them at many times their price. By 2014, Choco Pies had become such a popular black market currency that Pyongyang banned them. This only burnished their popularity further. In 2015, there came about pictures of Kim Jong-un inspecting a batch of cookies that looked suspiciously like Choco Pies. But this imitation cookie was rejected since it had little chocolate and more grease.
The fascinating tidbits don't end here. The article has great party-tales sort of trivia about Choco Pies (including how they have become a political flashpoint in China) as well as a primer of how Choco Pies (or moon pies as they are known in America) have a racist connotation to them. These pies have been dubbed ‘negro's kiss’ and ‘negress' tits’ to name just two.
Clearly, when it comes to these South Korean Choco Pies, the cookie isn’t crumbling anytime soon.
