Today is Pepero Day in South Korea

The calendar says 11/11/11, which means one thing in South Korea: Pepero Day. They call it Pepero Day because these skinny, chocolate covered biscuits resemble the numbers that make up the date 11/11. It’s huge holiday over there, with markets and convenient stores decked out with fancy displays and gift baskets of these snacks, a knock off of the more familiar Pocky brand. The concept is that you gift boxes of these confectionary treats to your significant other as a symbol of your affection. Barf, right? As if we need another commercialized holiday to set a standard for how we hang in our relationships. Even the Asian markets here in the States gave into the South Korean craze this year. The photo above wasn’t even half of the display that I saw while shopping for groceries yesterday.

Anyway, call me a hypocrite, but I succumbed to the pressure of celebrating this day by making homemade Pepero sticks. I chose this recipe because it seemed to emulate the taste of the original sticks as closely as possible. The tahini and orange zest were nice touches and gave it that extra kick that resulted in my boyfriend describing them as “crack like”. Success! Happy Pepero Day, ya’ll!

How will you celebrate 11/11/11?