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As I mentioned in my past blog, I talked about Mukbang and it’s place in today’s social media trends and what exactly is it and how it got popularised internationally.
I’m going to be talking about my experiences with mukbang. There are several instances where I’ve wanted to try it out myself but I wouldn’t call it Mukbang or wouldn’t think of the idea, instead it would be my cousins and I buying a lot of snacks from those small stores in the Philippines like chips, cookies and soft drinks; then proceeding to have what we call in the Philippines a ‘Food trip’. I guess it is pretty similar to Mukbang the only biggest difference is we don’t have an audience that watches us, it is just ourselves enjoying the variety and semi-large amounts of food. I’ve had these food trips since I was quite young so when I first discovered what Mukbang was, my first initial reaction was surprised because I didn’t expect or even thought about the idea of eating in front of a camera would generate such a large following or large audience — since it is just either one or a couple of people with a bunch of food eating normally or exaggerated in front of an expensive camera or just their computer’s webcam.
Besides food tripping there are other alternatives to ‘Mukbang’ but Filipino style. The photo above shows something called a ‘Budel fight’ — it’s simply a very big dinner. The food is placed on banana leaves and on top of a long table where everyone is facing each other, all the food is mixed within each other and typically in a Budel fight we use our hands to eat — still given the option to use cutlery though. I’ve experienced a Budel fight a couple of times in my life but not enough to truly enjoy it, since I was born in Hong Kong; I didn’t really fully indulge or adapt to the real Filipino lifestyle and the number one etiquette in eating when being a Filipino is usually eating with our hands. I grew up in Hong Kong so when I had my first Budel fight when I went back to the Philippines, I looked like a fool around my family and relatives; but I tried my best to learn their ways for future purposes.
Jessica Pauline Camille Ablog Mercado 