Forbidden Fruit MUKBANG!!!
Lily looked deep into the magnification mirror she had in the center of her vintage white makeup vanity. She barely even looked into the mirror that came with the vanity except at the very end, to make sure every detail had come together perfectly. And as she switched her sight of vision to that mirror, indeed, she saw it had come together perfectly. Her pale skin was pore-less, the final application of powder baking the foundation, primer, and concealer so that it was totally matte. Her lips, recently redone with three injections this time instead of two -- were lined with MAC cream lip stain in a rosy red color.
Looking from a distance, she could see the contours of her face as outlined extensively with bronzing cream and highlighter at various points, and her micro-bladed eyebrows had been outlined to look even bigger with additional brow gel. Her metallic, multi-colored eyelids faded into cream toward the corners, and were marked with black winged liner and overly long fake eyelashes. She preferred the feathery kind. Her dyed pastel-pink hair fell in waves to her shoulders. Lily gave herself a spritz of setting spray all over her face, and she was done. She stood up, left her bedroom, and walked into the recording room across the hallway.
There, in front of the video camera and the microphone, was a veritable smorgasbord of food set across a dark black table, meant to contrast with the colors of the food against the white background of the room. The afternoon light was pouring through a giant window, and a floor lamp sat in the other corner. No overhead lighting anywhere: the ideal scenario for recording. She sat down at the green velvet wingback chair behind the table, put on her signature pink bunny ears over her pastel-pink hair, and called for Eva.
“EVAAAAAAAAAA,” she called. “It’s recording time!”
In walked her girlfriend, a tall, athletic Latina woman with short black hair, still dressed in her scrubs from her shift as an ultrasound technician at an imaging center. “I hope this isn’t going to be a long one,” she said. “I’m so ready to just sit down on the couch and watch TV. I don’t want to do a long one tonight, too, please. And I hope we can hang out instead of you trying to edit immediately afterward.”
“No edits, baby, I promise! Just the video. There’s not even a script tonight because I’m trying something new. I’ll even do cleanup myself and everything. We have the whole evening together! I think it’s gonna be a short one, it all depends on the food, I guess!”
“Okay,” replied Eva. “Let’s go. You ready?”
“Absolutely,” replied Lily.
Eva flipped on the microphone, and then the camera. She held up her fingers: five, four, three, two, one…
“Hey y’all, it’s Lily Bunny here! Today our mukbang video is a whole bunch of food from Olive Garden, because you know, when you’re here watching my videos, you’re family. And Olive Garden is sponsoring my video this time! I’ve got a family-size salad, a basket of breadsticks, eggplant parmigiana, chicken marsala, shrimp scampi, five cheese ziti al forno, zuppa toscana, fried calamari, and a large raspberry lemonade to drink. And of course, the Tour of Italy, which has chicken parmigiana, lasagna, and fettuccine Alfredo! I’m absolutely STARVING and I can’t wait to dig into this feast. Now, normally, I like to talk about gamer news while I eat, but today I’m gonna be trying something new by special request -- ASMR! I even got a new microphone just so you can hear all the slurps and crunches. So, without further ado, it’s time to eat!”
Over the course of about 45 minutes, Lily took her gold-colored utensils and dug into the faux Italian feast before her. She started with salad, then chomped down several breadsticks before mixing and matching with the pastas and chicken, taking care to noisily slurp the pasta. She took sips of raspberry lemonade from a big white styrofoam to-go cup between bites, and ended by slurping down the zuppa toscana, viscerally and loudly chewing the chunks. She didn’t eat it all -- she rarely did -- but she always aimed to eat one-thirds of each dish on the table. It was usually all cold by the time she started eating, anyway. Eva had picked it up on her way home from work about two hours ago, leaving Lily enough time to do her hair and makeup and record the video.
She giggled, and winked, then said, “Okay, Eva, cut it off now, I’m done. I guess no outro because of the ASMR thing. If you want to eat some go ahead… otherwise just throw it away. It’s pretty cold and getting gross so you might want to heat it up or whatever… I gotta go.”
Eva, who’d just spent an hour on her feet recording the video, responded, “Wait, you said you’d clean up this time.”
“Oh, babe, it’s no big deal though, just reheat and eat and throw it in the trash. No dishes this time since it was all take-out. I’ll wash the utensils and stuff if you want!” Without waiting for Eva to respond, Lily immediately walked out and headed to the bathroom where she made herself throw up.
She didn’t consider herself a bulimic or anything -- she only did this after her videos. But it felt disgusting to be this full. She wasn’t overweight, but she had gained a few pounds since her videos started focusing on mukbang about two years ago. For the most part, she kept it under control. She uploaded mukbang videos weekly, but Eva wanted her to go down to monthly and go back to recording gaming videos instead. But for Lily, the responses she got to the mukbang videos were much more fun.
Lily rose to fame as a “girl gamer” on YouTube, notoriously (and purposefully) ditzy and “bad” at the first-person shooters she tended to focus on. She’d record clips of her Twitch streams, and then discuss and review the level of the game and how super hard it was. Occasionally, she would do vlogs where she talked about her life in her Los Angeles suburb, or review gamer-adjacent movies, TV shows, and books.
She was moderately successful right off the bat, her well-off parents purchased all kinds of good recording equipment for her and paid for a nice house for her to live in while she went to college. When she started her YouTube channel Lily wanted to be a lawyer, but dropped out of UCLA in her junior year to focus on her videos instead. She’d originally recorded and edited them herself. But it was getting harder to produce the kinds of videos she wanted to make all on her own.
During college she met Eva. Eva was a lesbian and wary of first-timer bi girls, but quickly became obsessed with Lily for a host reasons. Her quirky habits, gorgeous looks, and adventurous spirit. She was fascinated with her popular YouTuber status, and attracted to her charming demeanor. She was drawn to her, the same way, it seemed the hundreds of thousands of viewers were, and soon, they were dating. Soon after that, they were living together. But, Eva was shy, and she didn’t want to be on camera.
To date, however, Lily’s most popular video was the one with Eva in it. Eva had agreed to be in one single video for Lily, on their one-year-anniversary, in which Lily came out as bi and got to introduce the entire world to her lesbian girlfriend. Eva agreed to it only for the exposure and “diversity of it all” in the gaming community. On camera, they fed each other chocolate-covered strawberries -- one of Eva’s favorite foods.
The response was explosive. A few media outlets reported on the “YouTube girl gamer” coming out. Lily gained thousands of new fans and haters, all bringing attention and views equally. She hit one million subscribers. Everyone was asking all sorts of questions about Eva, and their relationship, but Eva pleaded with Lily for her privacy and Lily tried to respect it. Disappointed by her girlfriend’s lack of desire to be involved with her YouTube channel, she looked for ideas to keep her momentum going. One comment on the anniversary video gave her pause: “damn y’all look hot mukbanging those strawberries.” And that’s how Lily switched to making mukbang videos. And they were a lot more popular than her gaming videos. Some old gamer fans were disappointed and stopped watching, but for the most part, her videos were more popular than ever.
While Lily did her vomit-and-shower post-video routine, Eva packed up all the Olive Garden containers and leftover food in a big trash bag after taking a few nibbles of the ice-cold, half-eaten entrees. She had to go to the big outside trash can to do it, because the kitchen trash can couldn’t possibly fit all the containers and food scraps. Walking down the hill of her gated home -- they’d upgraded to a larger, more private house a few months after the anniversary video to accommodate Lily’s rising fame and greater need for security -- she noticed a dirty man walking down the sidewalk on her street. Eva checked to make sure the gate was locked.. It was very unusual to see anyone on the sidewalks in this area of town except for the occasional overtired nanny pushing a stroller or a tight, young jogger running with an athletic and perfectly bred dog.
The man, an unkempt beard covering his ragged face and wearing threadbare stained clothes , limped toward the gate. He put his calloused hands on two of its forest-green bars, smashing his face between them as he shouted toward Eva while she was dumping the food in the trash. “HEeeeeeeey. That smells SO GOOD! Did y’all have a par-TAY or what?”
“Hey…” said Eva, cautiously. “No, we just… my girlfriend and I had a lot of food, that’s all.”
“All of that for two people? And it looks like you didn’t even finish it all! Shoulda had a party instead, if you ask me. Look at all that wasted money! But by the looks of things, you don’t need to worry much about money anyway. What a shame!” he responded, chortling.
Eva nervously chuckled. “Yeah—it’s a long story. My girlfriend doesn’t go out very much. We bring a lot of food home.” She didn’t want to give away too many details. Lily hadn’t had many problems with obsessed fans turning into stalkers, but it’d happened a couple of times and they’d had to call the police to get them to leave. This guy, however, clearly had no idea who she was.
“You got a few bucks or something? I gotta get back into town. Not sure how I wound up here, to be honest with ya!”
Eva slammed the lid down on the trash can, starting to feel awkward. “No I—I typically don’t carry cash on me, but… stay here one minute. I’ll go inside and see if we have anything.”
A few minutes later, Eva appeared again with a $20 bill her mother had dutifully sent her in this year’s birthday card. Living with Lily (and having her own small income) meant she didn’t need it, so it had just been sitting in her wallet for several months now. Adam stuck out his grubby hand and took it from her.
“Thanks, doll,” he said. “That’s more than I’d even hoped for. When I get back into town, I’m gonna go get me some of that uh, forbidden fruit, if you know what I mean.” He winked, and started walking back the same way he had come. And no, Eva had absolutely no idea what he meant.
As he was walking away, Lily stuck her head out the door and shouted, “EvaAAAAaaa! Baby where are you?! Come back! Let’s cuddle please!” and Eva, without even responding to either of them, headed back toward the house. She glanced back at the green gate and she immediately felt unsettled.
A week later, Eva and Lily were in their kitchen preparing a seafood boil for her next mukbang video. People had loved the ASMR video, so this time she was going to do one without even doing an intro -- no talking whatsoever. Lily was pretty good at editing her own videos at this point, but she was contacting a sound editor about adding more ASMR-style sound effects after this one was recorded.
The feast was to be as follows: three pounds of potatoes, twelve ears of corn, two pounds of Andouille sausage, four pounds of shrimp, three beers, a huge green salad, and for dessert, cinnamon apple beignets. Most of it had to be cooked outside in the new outdoor boil pot Lily had purchased especially for this video -- but for now, they were preparing the beignets and salad.
Lily leaned against the counter as Eva added flour into their artisan Kitchen-Aid. “Hmm!” she said. “You know, this sound editor guy I’m talking to, he’s gonna show me what to do here with these videos so I can do it myself. But you know what would be GREAT, baby? It would be great if we could just start doing more ASMR videos in general! Just to see what it’s like! You know, it doesn’t just have to be like, mukbang, either! Like, I could cut up kinetic sand and smash lipsticks and whisper a bedtime story, or whatever it is that these people like. I think I could make two or three videos a week if I could get you to help me a little bit more. And I bet I could get more subscribers than Trisha Paytas—she’s got FIVE million. I’m almost at two million right now. What do you think, baby?”
Eva sighed, pouring the milk into the Kitchen-Aid before turning it on low to knead the dough. She turned toward Lily and spoke loudly over the noise of the mixer. “Look, Lily. I’m so exhausted with these videos already. I was thinking maybe you should hire someone, or a team, even. I really think I want to go back to nursing school. The YouTube stuff just isn’t for me. It’s your thing.”
Lily’s face fell, and then she shrieked. “What is WITH you this week!? You have been so MEAN and distant! I don’t want to do videos with strangers. I want to do them with YOU, baby. You don’t even NEED to be a nurse or have a job or whatever! I make plenty of money for both of us! I just wanna make your life a lot easier, you know?”
Eva glanced to check if the beignet dough was mixing okay as the dough hook kneaded the beige mass inside the big silver bowl. A little longer. Then she glanced back at Lily. “Look, Lil, I love you, but I’m sick of this. We’ve been together for almost three years now. I did that one video with you -- for you. But you knew I never wanted this shit. I was just kind of biding my time, hoping you’d get big enough that you’d want to hire professionals instead of me… or maybe even hoping that you’d just, I don’t know, quit. Or take a break or something.”
Lily began to sob, which she did loudly. She was a bit of an ugly crier -- maybe the only time she ever looked ugly. Between her cries, she sniffled out a response. “Eva, baby, why would I take a break right now when I am so far ahead! This is like, the peak of my YouTube career! Why don’t you EVER support me?”
Eva turned off the Kitchen-Aid and slammed a fist down on the marble counter. “Are you kidding me?” she said. “All I’ve done is support you. I gave up my professional dreams for you. I do EVERYTHING for you except edit and upload the videos. I cook, and I clean up, and I record, and I pick up your food. I help you pick outfits and makeup looks. My entire schedule -- my entire fucking life -- revolves around you. I literally clean up the vomit from the rim of our toilet seat after you’re done with your videos. Thank God you hired that fucking marketing company to manage all your social media, because remember when I was doing that too? What about me, Lily?”
A look of cruelty flashed in Lily’s eyes, now reddened and puffy from crying. “I pay for EVERYTHING! You have a dream life! We live in a huge house! You have everything you could possibly want! You have a famous girlfriend who takes care of you! Without me, you’d be nowhere... You’d be flunking right out of medical school!” she screamed.
“You know what, Lily?” replied Eva. “I don’t want this shit any more. Make your own beignets. Make your own videos. Hire a video producer, hire a personal assistant, hire a fucking cook, hire a housekeeper! I know you can afford it. If you can’t let me have my own life, my own career -- I’m gone.”
Lily paused for a minute, her blue eyes meeting Eva’s brown ones. She bit her lip. She didn’t want Eva to leave, but… she’d been super accommodating already.
“Eva, no! This isn’t fair. Other YouTubers’ partners agree to be part of their videos all the time! And you won’t even do THAT for me. Publicists are always emailing me asking me to put you in more videos with me and I have to tell them that you won’t!” The volume of Lily’s voice began rising as she spoke. “We would be huge, there aren’t many, you know, big-name girl-on-girl couples on YouTube. I just want you to HELP me. It’s like you don’t want to be part of my life. And this IS my life! Whether you like it or not!” Lily took her arm and shoved the groceries off of the counter she was leaning on. Potatoes, corn, and shrimp scattered all over the floor.
Eva pursed her lips together. “Yeah, no. I’m done with your dramatics. You aren’t hearing me, and I’m not doing this. I’m going to go pack my shit and stay at a hotel. And I’m going to use MY card to book it. With my own money, from my own job. I don’t think you’ve ever let me be myself. Why would you start now? I hope you get as famous and rich as you want to be. Enjoy making dinner and doing everything yourself!”
Lily grabbed onto Eva desperately, holding her tight, and tried to kiss her on the cheek, the way she used to do when she had a crush on her but was too nervous to kiss her on the lips. Eva softened, but remained firm, letting Lily hold her one last time. “I mean it, Lily. This isn’t working. It’s not going to work. We want totally different things. You’re… you’re going places. Without me.” Eva pushed her away and went back to their bedroom so she could start packing.
Several hours later, Eva was gone and a suitcase full of her belongings was gone with her. Lily had been crying on and off, but she’d managed to pick up all the groceries, make the seafood boil, finish the beignets, and get her makeup done on her own. It’d basically taken most of the day, being all by herself, so the beautiful afternoon light wasn’t pouring in. It was evening now, and the sun was setting. The lighting would be terrible. She tried to turn on a few more lamps in the room to offset it, but it just made her look pasty and backlit. Oh well.
The feast was set out on the table -- a mess, no plates, just the food directly onto the black wooden surface. The juices from the seafood boil had seeped into the freshly cooked beignets. Lily got out her camera tripod, set her camera on it in front of the desk, and turned it on, and then turned on her microphone, put on her pink bunny ears, and sat in front of the camera, looking directly into it.
As she sat eating the seafood boil wordlessly, not even bothering to use her golden utensils, tears began to stream down her face. Lily ate the food—almost all of it this time—and drank all of the beers, and ate all of the salad. She ran out of the room at one point to vomit, then drank some water from the bathroom faucet and returned to the recording room and kept eating, focusing on the seafood-soaked beignets.
Several days later, Eva had gotten all of her belongings from Lily’s house. She was crashing on a coworker’s couch for a few days, and then she was moving into an apartment near her work, where she’d shifted to full-time. And, she was applying to nursing schools and medical schools. She’d decide which path she’d choose depending on who accepted her and her less than perfect grades.
Meanwhile, Lily uploaded her latest video. It was entitled “Lily Bunny ASMR Seafood Boil Mukbang Crying Because Girlfriend Broke Up With Me!!!” It was almost entirely unedited, even the time when she was in the bathroom throwing up, so all the camera saw was a blank table for several minutes. The intriguing and bizarre clip went viral, quickly becoming her most popular upload—easily surpassing the anniversary video.
Eat with the author: Cinnamon apple beignets
Ingredients:
4 tsp instant yeast
3 ½ cups bread or all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
¾ cup apple cider
¾ cup half and half
1 tbs. vanilla
½ cup softened butter
1 egg
1 Granny Smith apple, cored, peeled, and finely diced
1 quart vegetable oil
Topping:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbs cinnamon
Mix together yeast, flour, salt, and cinnamon in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. With mixer running on low, add softened butter, then egg. Switch to dough hook and pour in apple cider, half and half, and vanilla. Let mixer run for five minutes, or until dough is soft and pliable. Take out, and knead in diced apple by hand, making sure to mix thoroughly. Put back in the bowl and let rise, covered, for one hour.
After an hour, punch down and roll out dough into a large square or rectangle, about ½ an inch thick. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut dough into even, 1-inch squares. Sift together powdered sugar and cinnamon, and set aside.
Meanwhile, add about 3-4 inches of oil to a frying pan, and let heat up to medium -- you’re looking for the oil to be about 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare ceramic plate lined with paper towels. Working in batches, fry about 5 or 6 beignets at a time, flipping once, making sure they are golden brown on each side. Then transfer to paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle each batch of beignets with cinnamon-powdered sugar while they are still hot. Continue until all the beignets are cooked. Serve warm. Tastes best without juices from a seafood boil.
