Happy Pepero Day!

This morning I was reminded that Nov. 11th is a special day in S. Korea. It may be Veterans Day here in the U.S., but in Korea it's Pepero Day, which as far as I'm concerned is freaking awesome, even if it is a giant marketing ploy by Lotte Confectionary Co. On this day, mainly younger Koreans or young couples give and receive boxes of Pepero. Like these two syrupy sweet lovers:


As you can see, Pepero are essentially breadsticks dipped in chocolate. They usually aren't so large as in the picture, though. You might notice that two Peperos side by side look like an 11. As in "ll.ll" which is today, of course. Pepero come in all sizes, milk and dark chocolate, some with crushed almonds, candy sprinkles or other candy goodness smeared into the chocolate. They come in boxes like this:


When I taught in the hakwan, my little students brought me a metric ton of the stuff. I went home at the end of the day with a humungus bag of them, and they lasted quite a while. One of my sweetest memories of being in Korea - receiving Pepero from my little students.