MBC ‘I Live Alone’

“You eat because you are sick” Broadcaster Kim Shin-young minted another catchphrase.

On the May 15 broadcast of MBC variety program ‘I Live Alone’, Kim Shin-young, fighting through laryngitis, flaunted an undaunted, tremendous appetite and brought big laughs to living rooms. Her outlandish, survival-style mukbang, which easily shattered the common notion that ‘When you are sick, you have no appetite’, captured the attention of viewers.

That day, her mukbang stood out from the appetizer on. The moment she woke in the morning, she started washing a heap of delivered strawberries, saying, “To revive my immunity, I need vitamins,” while sending strawberries straight into her mouth nonstop as she prepped them.

The highlight of the strawberry segment was a secret home remedy said to be handed down through generations. She put strawberries in a bowl, squeezed in plenty of grain syrup, then crushed them thoroughly and began scooping them up with a spoon. When the Rainbow members could not hide their surprise at the unfamiliar look, she set a firm line: “It is medicine. This is not something you eat for taste.” She continued, “It is a home remedy passed down from my grandmother; when you catch a cold, you should let something sweet go down in one go. That way you get vitamins and sugar, your throat gets stronger, so you absolutely eat it,” adding, “It is much tastier than the strawberry syrup you get when you have a cold, and for me it is like a restorative,” revealing complete trust in the recipe from her grandmother.

MBC ‘I Live Alone’

After priming with vitamins via grain-syrup strawberries, she immediately pulled out a huge mixing bowl and moved on to the main meal. The menu was ‘mixing-bowl anchovy bibimbap’, rice mixed with her special stir-fried anchovies made by tossing in nuts she had received as holiday gifts. Shaping handfuls of the bibimbapwith an overwhelming half-rice, half-anchovy ratiowithout even a spoon and pushing them into her mouth made viewers start salivating.

Her storm-like appetite, unbelievable for someone with laryngitis, left the studio shaking their heads: “Normally with laryngitis you have no appetite”, “It makes no sense to cook and eat that when you are sick.” But Kim Shin-young flaunted her firm credo: “When you are sick, you have to eat.”

After finishing the meal, she hit the peak of the mukbang by preparing her own special dessert. Presenting a sweet-and-salty combination of ice cream topped with finely crushed potato chips, she recommended it, saying, “Potato chips on ice cream are really good. Really good.”

When the Rainbow members watching in the studio voiced concern“Will not that shred the roof of your mouth?”she reassured them: “It breaks into small pieces, so it is fine.” As the ice-cream mukbang got underway in earnest, the panelists could not hide their amazement“For someone with a cold, you really eat well”and she answered boldly, “If I do not eat well, who is going to do anything for me?”, eliciting bittersweet empathy for single-person households enduring pain alone.

Even while inhaling ice cream studded with crushed potato chips despite laryngitis, she vividly described the effects of the dessert: “It really goes down, and it takes the cough and the swollen salivary glands down with it. You have to eat this to get better.” The panel, watching, nodded as if spellbound.

Yet even Kim Shin-young, known for her hearty appetite, could not completely escape the after-effects of laryngitis. Unable to finish the ice cream, she put down her spoon, saying, “It hurts, so I cannot eat to the end,” drawing sympathy. Even so, she began the pile of overdue laundry despite her condition“Laundry and things like this should not be put off”showing the diligent homemaker side as she shared her convalescent daily life.

That day, the bittersweet yet astonishing diary of convalescence from Kim Shin-youngwhich proved with her whole body the sayings “My throat hurts but my stomach does not rest” and “You eat because you are sick”brought cheerful energy to weekend living rooms. Thanks to her efforts, the program ranked first among Friday variety shows with a 5.3% rating (Nielsen Korea nationwide).