New mukbang trend cuts back on plentiful portions

Food & Travel

Published: 03 Mar. 2022, 15:09 Updated: 03 Mar. 2022, 22:15

New mukbang trend cuts back on plentiful portions

Sosik YouTuber Park Soo-ha, left, and original mukbang YouTubers both filming videos with burgers [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Every now and then, mukbang (eating show) YouTuber Park Soo-ha, scrolls through her channel’s comments section to get ideas about what she should eat next.

Recently, the 31-year-old settled on one of her fans' favorites — hamburgers.

Unlike other mukbang YouTubers who spend a considerable amount of time and money creating piles of burgers, Park will eat just one.

In fact, in most of her videos, Park can’t finish all of the food she’s ordered. She couldn’t finish Lotteria’s limited edition Squid Burger and side of cheese sticks. In the video, there is no two-liter Coca Cola bottle or extra large-sized French fries that are usually commonplace in mukbang.

“I didn’t order a set because I know I won’t be able to finish everything,” says Park in the video.

Park is one of the small yet steadily growing group of rather moderate mukbang YouTubers.

Content like Park’s is called sosik mukbang. Sosik translates to a small meal while the word mukbang usually denotes eating shows featuring large quantities of food as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary.

Oxymoronic though it may seem, sosik mukbang is still a branch of the food-video genre that includes the content’s three essential elements — food, cameras and the act of eating.

Sosik mukbang recently picked up steam among locals as Korean celebrities appeared on various media outlets and showcased their abstemious eating habits.

Former girl group 2NE1 member Sandara Park's portions went viral last October when she was filmed on comedian Kim Sook’s YouTube channel being unable to finish one roll of gimbap (seaweed rice rolls) and a bowl of tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) in one sitting. Kim and Park were regular panelists on MBC’s entertainment program “Video Star” at the time.

When Kim makes fun of Park saying that she cannot even finish a whole banana, Park shoots Kim a rebellious look, bites off a chunk of her banana and says “No, these days I can eat it all.”

Park’s seemingly meek diet surprised the public again last week when she posted a picture of a half full ice vanilla latte with a caption that said she had been “drinking that the entire day.”

Singer Sandara Park eating a banana, left, and a Instagram story photo of her ice vanilla latte [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Another K-pop star who has recently garnered the public’s attention for his lacklustre appetite is producer and rapper Code Kunst.

On MBC's reality program “I Live Alone,” Code Kunst was filmed baking a single sweet potato in the oven. His entire food intake for the day was a cup of coffee, two bananas and one sweet potato.

Producer and rapper Code Kunst eating a sweet potato during a scene on MBC reality program "I Live Alone" [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Comedian Ahn Young-mi said that it takes her three to four days to eat one box of fried chicken during the MBC's variety program “The Manager” in January. A box of chicken typically weighs some 800 grams.

Comedian Ahn Young-mi shares her eating habits on MBC's entertainment show "The Manager" [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Another characteristic of these new mukbangers is that they take their time to eat rather than voraciously diving into their food.

Actor Ahn So-hee who is also a former member of the girl group Wonder Girls was filmed gnawing at a piece of boiled egg white for two minutes and 30 seconds on “I Live Alone” last February.

“It’s refreshing to see this style of mukbang amid the slew of binge-eating people on the web,” read a comment under Ahn’s video which received 601 likes.

Singer and actor Ahn So-hee eating boiled egg whites on "I Live Alone" [SCREEN CAPTURE]

After witnessing such celebrities, netizens have coined the term sosikjwa to refer to people with bird-like appetites. The affix -jwa (pronounced juwah) means status or rank, so the word roughly translates to "king of small meals."

Sosik mukbang YouTuber Park says that her channel has seen a surge of new subscribers ever since words like sosikjwa and celebrities with meager diets began trending.

“Just recently, some 900 people subscribed to my channel!” she said.

On YouTube as of Wednesday, there were 212 clips under the hashtag sosik mukbang. Compared to a whopping 1.4 million under the hashtag mukbang, it can't be considered an online phenomenon, but Park says that the genre has grown over the past two years that she has been filming mukbang.

“When I first began filming, only those who could eat exceedingly large amounts of food in a short period of time were considered mukbang YouTubers,” said Park.

As a fan of the genre, Park said that she wanted to give mukbang a try, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to eat so much and she didn’t want to either as she was trying to stay fit and healthy.

“But then I thought, what if I filmed myself devouring just regular or small amounts of food?”

Attaining some 10,900 dedicated subscribers, Park has filmed dozens of sosik mukbang videos and vlogs since then.

“Other mukbang YouTubers gobble up their food to the extent that it sometimes dampers my appetite. But this girl eats calmly and chews her food thoroughly. It is actually very nice to watch before a mealtime to get my appetite going,” read one comment on one of Park’s video.

“How is she full after that meal? I am so jealous!” read another.

Sosik mukbang is different from other diet-related content as people deemed sosikjwa do not necessarily restrain themselves from eating less or only healthy foods for the sole purpose of losing weight.

On the contrary, they eat the popular menu items of regular mukbangers such as hamburgers, ramen and fried chicken. The reason behind their tiny portions is simply due to their preference and eating habits.

Jeong Seung-yeon, professor of nutritional science and food management at Ewha Womans University, says that there may be genetic components involved but mostly, people can minimize their portions by gradually altering their eating habits.

“Your body can adjust to different amounts of food that enter your body, so if you eat less over a long period of time, it is possible to shrink your portions,” said Jeong.

However, she advised against simply adhering to other people’s meal sizes.

“Food portions vary among people of different age and size,” said Jeong, “and eating less isn’t always healthy. Food portions are not a black-and-white matter where there is one correct answer. Just because a celebrity or a YouTuber eats a certain amount, it doesn’t mean that the same portion is also right for you.”

Pop culture critic Jeong Deok-hyun said that sosik mukbang is an outcome of the genre’s evolution as it strives to suit the preferences of people’s diversifying diets.

“Food is a very comprehensive subject that most people tend to enjoy,” said Jeong, “and these days, people have varying eating styles and habits. Some people prefer a plant-based diet while others prefer meat. Accordingly, mukbang seems to be developing to meet the needs of more diverse people.”

Jeong also said that while the number of sosik mukbang may not rise to match that of the original mukbang content, it will continue to garner a dependable stream of views as it targets a specific audience.

“Even if there is only a handful of these videos, they have a very concentrated viewership.”

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]