You probably have a friend who likes to eat unusual food like fried insects or durian fish soup.
Alhough your friend may indulge in tuna eyeballs or penis fish (yes, they’re a real thing), there’s a trending strange food in South Korea that might make them draw the line.
While we Singaporeans are busy enjoying our annual treat of curly fries, South Korea has been indulging in crispy toothpick fries.
Mukbang (pronounced muhk-bah-ng) is a familiar concept. For those unfamiliar, mukbangs are food ASMR videos that have gained popularity since the mid 2010s.
Most viewers watch mukbang simply for fun. It is kinda entertaining to watch someone eat a KFC meal for five, all on their own.
Some viewers even watch mukbang in place of eating to satisfy their appetite without consuming calories (sounds like a good idea for your 2024 diet).
Are South Koreans Actually Eating Toothpicks?
While most mukbangs showcase content creators eating large amounts of normal foods such as noodles or fast food, a new wave of mukbang has hit South Korea.
Numerous videos have surfaced online, featuring individuals deep-frying toothpicks in oil and consuming them during mukbang sessions.
@brutamericaA new trend has taken over social media in South Korea: eating deep friend starch toothpicks.♬ original sound – Brut.
Unlike wooden toothpicks we use in Singapore, South Korean toothpicks are made of potato or corn starch, which is biodegradable and hence deemed to be more environmentally friendly.
When deep-fried in oil, these starch toothpicks appear similar to curly fries, and are apparently very crispy.
Many have hopped onto the bandwagon, adding their own seasonings and spices to enhance the toothpicks’ taste. Some netizens are even offering tips on how to bring out the flavour of the toothpicks.
The Government’s Response
South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) has issued a health warning, urging people to not eat these fried toothpicks.
“Their safety as food has not been verified,” the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said on 24 January on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). “Please do not eat (them).”
Despite this warning, South Koreans seem to continue enjoying their crunchy curly toothpick fries (kind of like how you continue eating chips even after your mom tells you to stop because it’s not healthy).
History repeats itself
This isn’t the first time the internet has encountered a trend about eating something that shouldn’t be consumed.
In 2018, people uploaded videos of themselves chewing on brightly coloured laundry detergent packets as part of the “Tide Pod challenge”.
Tide Pods, manufactured by Procter & Gamble (P&G) since 2012, can be deadly if ingested.
Between 2012 and 2013, poison control centres reported over 7,000 cases of young children eating laundry pods, which can easily be mistaken for candy. Ingestion of P&G’s laundry pods had resulted in six deaths by 2017.
The Tide Pod challenge gained so much traction that authorities issued warnings to people to stop ingesting the pods. Many people, particularly teens, were even hospitalised for consuming tide pods.
No matter how edible fried toothpicks or Tide Pods look, they are NOT meant for consumption.
Do you really want your gravestone to say you died from eating fried toothpicks?
Yeah. I didn’t think so.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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