{"id":79826,"date":"2023-11-21T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?post_type=newspack_nl_cpt&p=79826"},"modified":"2023-11-21T07:23:46","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T15:23:46","slug":"those-food-videos-on-ig-heres-how-theyre-made","status":"publish","type":"newspack_nl_cpt","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/newsletter\/those-food-videos-on-ig-heres-how-theyre-made","title":{"rendered":"Those ubiquitous food videos on Instagram? Here\u2019s how they\u2019re made"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Long Beach Eats<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Weekly tips from the Long Beach Post’s food reporter on what to eat and where to score sweet deals. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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FOOD<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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MUSIC<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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ART<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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INSTAGRAM<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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YOUTUBE<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I, like many of you, spend a lot of time on social media. My Instagram is flooded with short clips of mouth-watering dishes from all over Southern California and beyond. The algorithm pumps me with so much content it\u2019s almost overwhelming. And when I look at who posts these videos, it\u2019s usually someone with thousands of followers whose entire grid is just food content and exclusive behind-the-scenes videos of opening-night events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These people \u2014 food influencers<\/strong> \u2014 have, in some ways, replaced a lot of traditional restaurant marketing like taking out ads in newspapers, dropping coupons in nearby neighborhoods or depending on reviews to garner hype. It\u2019s not necessarily the number of views these Instagram videos get that restaurants are after, but how many people send each video to a friend, something that generally translates to people actually going. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Long Beach Post, we have a team of people working on Instagram videos<\/a> of food happenings around town, but unlike our journalists, influencers are often paid for their services or given free food, and many are working alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a phenomenon I\u2019ve known in theory, but never really seen in action, so I went to Sura Korean BBQ and Tofu House<\/strong> to watch the process of James Tir<\/strong>, probably better known as @lbfoodcoma<\/a> on Instagram, who was filming social media content with Sura co-owners Brandon and Claire Kim. James has been working on building his personal food Instagram account since 2014 and now has over 58,000 followers. I was interested to see what life is like for a food influencer and what their job actually entails so I asked him about 8 million questions while he did his thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

James not only runs his own account, but many social media accounts for restaurants in the city in addition to Sura. He plans content a month in advance, so he\u2019ll go to a restaurant and receive multiple dishes, specifically items that look aesthetically pleasing or new dishes owners and chefs want to promote. James films each dish individually and posts throughout the month to spread out the content. Most days, he\u2019s visiting three to four different locations in the city. The most he\u2019s done in a day was seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because James was filming several dishes for Instagram content, I was able to try a variety of offerings (Disclaimer: I did not pay for the food I sampled after James filmed it. During normal visits on my own or with Post staff, we do pay for our food).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, the dishes were brought out one at a time. James spends less than a minute getting different shots of a dish (\u201cIt\u2019s all in the editing,\u201d he said) and then it\u2019s on to the next. His goal is to make the food look beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The business part of the lunch takes only about 15 to 20 minutes and the rest is eating with the Kims who help James show his audience how best to eat the food by mixing, cutting and dipping various elements of the dish on camera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the items we tried were spicy rice cakes (tteokbokki), which have always been one of my favorite Korean dishes. Sura\u2019s rose tteokbokki<\/strong> ($12.99) comes with rice cakes, sausage, bacon and cheese in a creamy, spicy gochujang (fermented chili paste) sauce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rose tteokbokki. Photo by Caitlin Antonios\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The rice cakes, which are usually made by combining salt, rice flour and water into cylinders that are then steamed and boiled, have a soft and chewy texture that\u2019s slightly gummy. I would not call myself a heat extremist, so even though this dish did have spice, it was absolutely tolerable, and better yet, enjoyable. Tteokbooki sauce, especially creamy sauce like this, coats your mouth akin to an Indian curry. It has a touch of sweetness to balance the earthy funk of the fermented chili paste.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something else I knew I would like was the garlic pork<\/strong> ($23.99), which is currently on special. Crispy, thin slices of the pork belly are marinated and served over softened green onion and topped with fried garlic slices. If you\u2019re worried about pork belly being too fatty, eating it like this won\u2019t saturate your mouth or stomach with grease, especially if you cut it with something tangy and spicy like the kimchi they give as part of the banchan, or side dishes, at each table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also brought out bulgogi bibimbap<\/strong> ($20.99), a rice dish served in a piping hot stone bowl that crisps the bottommost layer of rice as it cooks. The dish is topped with all sorts of veggies, meat of your choice, a fried egg and sesame oil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beef bulgogi bibimbap. Photo by Caitlin Antonios.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The last few dishes were the spam and cheese tofu soup ($16.99), crispy seafood pancake ($16.99) and crispy squid with masago creamy aioli dip ($13.99). All were delicious, and with the weather getting chilly, the still-boiling-when-served tofu soup is something I\u2019ll be ordering again soon. It has that same spicy gochujang paste (a staple in Korean cuisine as you\u2019ll notice) that\u2019s rich and smooth as it goes down your throat and warms you from the inside out. There\u2019s something so comforting about tofu that\u2019s absorbed all that great broth and just melts in your mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sura Korean BBQ & Tofu House is at 621 Atlantic Ave. <\/em>Directions<\/em><\/a> | <\/em>Website<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dishes on my to-try list<\/h2>\n\n\n\n