BJ Pascual's mukbang videos aim to help small food businesses
By John Legaspi
On KUMU, the fashion photographer shows off his foodie finds.
In these trying times, it is hard not to be consumed by all the negativities happening around the country. Even if we try to seek refuge online by reconnecting with our friends and loved ones, depressing matters still find their way to our social media feeds. With the digital world getting messier every day, we can all agree that it needs a major cleanup and restoration.
For BJ Pascual, social media has a renewed purpose in the pandemic. His many followers know that, apart from showcasing his works, BJ’s online platforms have been put to better use as a tool to inform, spread positivity, and, of course, serve unlimited style inspirations from his shoots.
These days, apart from his life as a fashion photographer, BJ is helping local food businesses through his mukbang video.
A Korean pop culture influence, mukbang is a term that in English translates to “eating broadcast.” It typically involves less talking and more eating, and aims to make viewers’ mouths water at the food displayed (or eaten) on their screen.
A self-confessed foodie, BJ chats with Manila Bulletin Lifestyle about his mukbang initiative and his top picks of the best food you should try now.
What made you decide to do mukbang and help out local food businesses?
The fashion industry, like any “non-essential” industry, was put to an abrupt halt during enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), which gave me a lot of time to reflect on and reprioritize certain things in life. I realized that I’m privileged to still live comfortably even without work. Some of my friends are putting up small businesses to earn a living while in quarantine and they sent me their products to try. So I started posting videos of myself eating their products on my Instagram stories to help promote their business. I noticed that the views always spiked whenever I posted eating videos so I thought why not do it every Sunday to help out small businesses in my own little way.
What can you say about Filipino home cooks and local food entrepreneurs upon tasting their products?
What I noticed is that these small food businesses don’t skip on the quality of the ingredients. Plus, there’s really nothing like homecooked food.
How was the experience of doing mukbang videos so far?
Work has started to pick up the past couple of months and, in the past few weeks my schedule slowly started filling up with shoots again. Along with it is the launching of my Youtube channel, which also has weekly episodes. It was increasingly hard to find time to film and edit the Sunday mukbang videos. There was a week I had to film on a Wednesday, because my schedule was full the rest of the week.
What dishes would you recommend people to try?
Omg! There are too many great ones! But probably my absolute favorites that I ordered more than once from would have to be the peanut butter no-bake cheesecake from @sizcake, the chicken adobo flakes from @dendensadoboflakes_atbp, the ube cheese turon from @himagas_ph, the spicy/cheese baked sushi from @bakedsushibymc, and the red/white sauce combo spaghetti from @spaghettinimama!.
Check out more of BJ’s food escapades on Sunday Mukbangs on his KUMU.