Mukbang, aka watching people cooking and eating, is big news on Youtube. If that sounds strange, take a look at some of the videos below and you may start to get its weird appeal
Remember Gogglebox? The show where we watch people watching TV? If you thought that was strange then get ready for Mukbangs. Mukbangs are pretty much people eating (sometimes cooking) and talking in front of a camera.
So why do people do this? In South Korea, where the trend started several years ago, it’s considered a little strange to eat on your own, recording themselves eating meant people now had virtual company.
In fact, recently we published a story about Sally Olivia Kim, from South Korean descent, who told us what she eats specifically for great skin. Click here to read.
There’s also a loneliness problem in Britain at the moment with the government recently appointing its first loneliness minister to stop this issue reaching the epic proportions it is expected to by 2030.
You can see some mukbangers eating enough to feed ten people, and there are also those who tell their hilarious stories as they eat. It shouldn’t work but somehow, it does.
This first started on a website called AfreecaTV in the 2010s where people could comment on their videos as they hosted their live eating show. In this way, viewers could interact with the person on the screen and request that they try their favourite meals on camera next time.
While mukbang is now so popular, even beauty gurus on YouTube are doing it, most of the focus is still on eating junk food.
But a growing army of mukbangers are going down the healthy eating while you watch route.
5 mukbangers we love
Here are 8 who not only cook healthy food and give us recipes, but are also incredibly entertaining. Get ready to crave all the meals they’re eating.
1. Mommy Tang
Mommy Tang is a mother of five and vegan. She promotes a healthy lifestyle whilst also being incredibly funny and entertaining.
Being of Korean descent, oftentimes she cooks and eats wonderful vegan korean meals – showing us vegan alternatives to the traditionally fish and meat laden cuisine.
Seeing her cute kids in the background whilst she’s yelling at the camera is always fun. With her outgoing and carefree personality I feel like she’s my favourite aunt who always has the the right answers to any problem I’m going through.
With her motto PROTEIN PROTEIN PROTEIN and her subscribers called Tang Gang, it’s always a joy to watch Mommy Tang’s videos.
Here she makes a traditional Korean dessert whilst talking about her love life.
2. Well Your World
Next up is Well Your World. Here we have two vegan brothers who cook and eat, sometimes in seperate videos. They love to promote eating ‘real’ food and answering questions and concerns people may have about food.
3. Sunny Sharde
Though not exclusively vegan, this wonderful lady often cooks at home and promotes home-made meals. Though she does treat herself sometimes, her genuine and ‘real’ style of cooking and lack of production makes me feel like I’m enjoying a meal with a friend. She makes anything look good, so try to avoid her fast food mukbangs (even though it’s super hard to do).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOvfUSIPD7o
4. Thien Le
Another one of my personal favourites, Thien Le is an incredible mukbanger. You can tell how much he’s enjoying his food and his broad palette is enviable. He often dabbles in cultural cuisines you may not have tried yourself, making your mouth water for flavours you’ve never experienced before.
5. KEEMI
Considered one of the queens of Mukbang, Keemi also switches between healthy and unhealthy dishes. Her boyfriend also does mukbangs and their cute exchanges during these videos are just adorable. With her dog in the background and the homely setting, I always feel comfortable and cosy when watching her eat. The way she bosses her boyfriend around and her witty responses to his goofiness always crack me up.
6. Cheap Lazy Vegan
With a YouTube handle like that what more would you want? Making cheap, easy vegan meals and enjoying it for you is what this entire YouTube channel is about.
…think that’s weird? Now get ready for LISTENING to people eat
If you didn’t think that Mukbang was unusual enough, I’ve got something else up my sleeve for you. ASMR. That stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.
This pretty much means that certain sounds and acts can cause tingling and calming sensations in specific people. One form of ASMR that has everybody watching (or listening) is food ASMR.
Here, take a look (or should we say, listen) for yourselves – but a warning, if you don’t find the sound of people eating calming, take your headphones off now:
Hungry Herbivore ASMR
Mystic Saurus
Just an FYI, the Korean Film festival is happening from November 1 – 14 in London. To find out what events and films they’ve got, and to book tickets, click here.
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ASMR -the YouTube trend that could help your insomnia
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