Duong Quy Nhon (nickname in Ky Nam Quy), 31, from An Giang, is a content creator on social network platforms. Nhon’s TikTok channel attracts millions of viewers and many comments. His clips with images of his cooking are the most favored by netizens.

The special feature of the dishes Nhon prepares are the materials: giant cockroaches, snakes, centipedes, worms.

Nhon once was the owner of a vegetarian hotpot eatery in Long Xuyen City in An Giang province. The 5-year-old eatery ran well and brought stable income.

Nhon, who likes drawing and sculpting animals, became a content creator on TikTok one year ago. 

His videos are popular with the public thanks to the "animals" he makes.

Nhon told his mother about his idea of making paste animals from flour. His mother was supportive and showed him how to knead the dough to create the best products. She also helped him set up a thatched house for filming.

Soon after posting the first clip, many viewers said they were impressed by the dough-made animals which looked real.

After becoming well known showing how to knead coloured dough into paste animals, he began thinking of other ideas and decided to show viewers how to cook with giant paste animals, sharply increasing his number of views.

Of the clips attracting millions of views, the one on preparing fried green worm cake has the highest number of viewers.

“Many people ask me to make worms. The clips with worms always catch a lot of attention, with 4-7 million viewers. And there are many funny interactions between me and viewers,” he said.

To make the giant green worm cake, Nhon spends two hours preparing the dough. The clips about worms still attract a high number of comments.

However, he sometimes receives negative comments from people who think he is cooking real insects and animals. He has to explain that the giant animals are made from dough and are edible.

No secrets

Nhon said other TikTokers will not reveal their secrets and use these secrets to attract viewers. However, Nhon says he does not want to use sensational news to lure viewers.

He is willing to reveal his secret and show viewers the nice animals and peaceful landscapes of the countryside.

Nhon's sincerity has won him love from many people. They often visit his channel to watch cooking as a way to entertain and relax.

He said it takes him a lot of time to create the paste animals. In order to make animal-shaped cakes, a lot of stages are needed. The most important thing is preparing the materials. He needs to weigh the flour and create a volume of dough suitable enough to create animals at the size he wants.

“If the amount of flour is not enough, the dough will be sticky, which makes it impossible to create colors for animals,” he explained.

For example, if he wants to make a giant frog-shaped cake, Nhon must carefully knead the dough and shape every small item. To make the animals look alive, he needs to carefully manipulate everything, from the nails to the spots on the skin.

Unlike other cakes, in order to make the frog-shaped cake, he has to steam the cake to restrict the movement and create a shine.

In addition to frogs and worms, Nhon creates cockroaches, lizards, crocodiles and mice of different sizes.

To create small animals, he spends one hour to knead the dough. For bigger animals, he needs 2-3 hours. If errors occur during the processing, or the products don’t look as good as expected, he has to do it again.

Because of his success, he shut down his eatery to spend all his time on the more interesting job of making animals from flour dough and making videos.

Ngoc Lai - Le Nhung