In the age of Instagram, many of us are well acquainted with the #foodporn hashtag. Usually adopted by those sharing their fine-dining experiences or home cooking achievements, these pictures and videos are most often beautifully photographed, and presented like a DIY version of the pages of a gourmet food mag.
It’s not all about hashtag #noms though - some social media accounts do anything with food but make it appear enticing and delicious. Nonetheless they have gained a huge following.
The latest hero of this growing genre is , whose video dissections of food have gained millions of views on Youtube. One in particular, “Reese's Peanut-Butter-Ectomy with Oreo Cream Transplant” has only been online for just over a week but has already had over 1 million views.
The mesmerising footage from a Seattle-based engineer named Jeff has viewers entranced. Even though he’s so far only uploaded three videos (the other two involve an avocado and a mandarin) he’s fast gaining subscribers.
It also didn’t take long for intrigued viewers to draw comparisons with ASMR, or autonomous sensory meridian response. for “whisper videos” that are said to give their viewers tingles and make them relax due to the soothing nature of the footage – not unlike The Food Surgeon’s.
He’s not the only bizarre food-tuber to gain a legion of online fans. Here are some of the other weird food cults that have taken social media by storm.
The Food Surgeon comments from Youtube Source: YouTube
Food ASMR
YouTuber SassEsnacks most popular video, with over 1.2 million views, shows her eating Korean black bean noodles. (Source: SassEsnacks via YouTube Source: YouTube
Muk Bang
The Muk Bang 'Diva' Park Seo-Yeon (Source: TheDiva via Youtube) Source: YouTube
Vintage '70s recipes
From liver sausage pineapple to bananas wrapped with ham, people have become obsessed with celebrating the glorious and somtimes gross recipes of the past. One popular homage to these dishes is the Twitter account . Here are a couple of their prime pickings:
Last meals
What would you eat if you knew it was the last meal you’d ever consume? It’s an idea that intrigued New Zealander and former fashion photographer , who created a fascinating photographic project, titled ‘’ whereby he recreated the last meal requests of famous death row inmates.
It’s not the only unusual food project that Hargreaves has undertaken. He’s also created maps out of food, foods in every colour of the and treated inanimate objects as food by .
'No Seconds' by Henry Hargreaves (Photograph: henryhargreaves.com) Source: Henry Hargreaves
Food of the Rainbow by Henry Hargreaves (Photograph: henryhargreaves.com) Source: Henry Hargreaves
Deep Fried Gadgets by Henry Hargreaves (Photograph: henryhargreaves.com) Source: Henry Hargreaves
Breadfacing
What is with breadfacing?
Breadfacing: The latest ridiculous social media trend that’s all about carb love
(Source @breadfaceblog) Source: Instagram
A 27-year-old Brooklynite of the Instagram account has popularised . A practice as simple as it sounds, it simply involves smushing ones face into pieces of bread.
Food sculptures
Food art by Martin Roller (Photograph: martinroller.com) Source: Martin Roller
Food Gradients
Fans of hyper-organisation will appreciate the work of Brittany Wright of Instagram account . The Seattle based photographer has accrued over 139,000 followers for her snaps of foods sorted into patterns and by gradient.
Crochet food hats
Melbourne based Instagrammer Phil Ferguson of has become famous for his crochet headpieces, with over 139,000 followers tuning in to view his weekly posts of new hats predominantly sculpted in the shapes of food.
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Fringe Foodies: ChiliPhilly
The worst food of Instagram
Fed up of pretentious foodporn posts by your amateur-photographer hipster friends? Welcome to – the anti-foodporn Instagram that collates all the most miserable and nauseating food photos from across the platform into one place. Clearly, they must be doing something right though because they’ve accrued over 146,000 followers in the process!
Spilled food art
Where the rest of us see a mess, artist Giulia Bernardelli of Instagram page sees beauty, creating stunning artworks out of food spills. She’s got plenty of fans too, earning thousands of likes for every messy post.
Junkfood inspired makeup
Yes even the ubiquitous online cult of beauty tutorials have delved in the world of food fetishes with Californian freelance make-up artist Tim O, of creating looks inspired by junk food. His unique skills have drawn in over 43,000 followers to see what he’ll create next.
Check out the more on strange and interesting food trends here:
