Boy kibble - so sad
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
"a ruthlessly efficient male-coded rejoinder to the extemporaneous charms of 'girl dinner'." Max Berlinger/AFR
I found the illustration above heading an article in the AFR at the weekend, about the latest TikTok sensation Boy kibble - sometimes called - in a nod to not being sexist - human kibble.
What is kibble? I actually thought it sounded like some kind of Middle-Eastern grainy something, but no. Kibble is:
"a popular, cost-effective, and convenient dry pet food made from processed meat, grains, and vegetables" Google AI
Which is just one of the almost deliberately unattractive things about boy - or human - kibble. And on second thoughts, maybe the use of human was not a desire to appear non sexist, but just a way of differentiating it from dog food.
I wrote about Girl dinner way back in 2023 so it's taken a while for the male sex to retaliate, which is probably not really what they are doing, but what the media thinks they are doing. Because it's not just the AFR that has written about this. News.com.au certainly has, as has delicious., so I'm guessing a whole lot of others have too. So far in my rambling around the net, the AFR is the only one to have used the word 'sad'. Which is reinforced by other comments in the article like this from a professor - Adrienne Bitar from Cornell University:
"In contrast to 'girl dinner' which is fun whimsical and creative, boy kibble is not focused on flavour, it's not focused on joy. It's focused on efficency and results."
or from their own reporter Max Berlinger:
"Boy kibble, in contrast, focuses on some nutritional ideal - a mix of carbs, protein and fibre - that helps one achieve a specific body type or fitness goal. Pleasure-seeking details like pleasure and aesthetics are tossed aside."
or put another way:
‘Boy kibble’ has arrived to prove that presentation is meaningless, plates are optional and the line between a gym bro and a golden retriever is now officially non-existent." Alison Turner/delicious.
Perhaps I should pause here to explain a little bit here about what boy - or human - kibble is.
Most of the media offer up Patrick Kong (in the picture at the top of the page) as the guy who got this all going, although most also agree that there isn't really one instigator. Anyway if you click on the Instagram link above you can watch him make it. The idea is succinctly put by News.com.au in their article on the subject:
"a meal that is easy to make and ticks all the boxes when it comes to protein and nutrition."
So on one day a week you make a big batch of the stuff, then divide it into as many plastic containers as you want - 10 in the video. Which I guess you would freeze? Would they last a week in the fridge? After all the health gurus go on about not refrigerating rice. Then there it is ready for a meal. All you have to do is heat it up - and add some meat - or other protein.
So what's the process for making it? Well I was quite surprised at how long it would take. The Instagram video is very speeded up of course, but he chopped up a heck of a lot of vegetables - he must have had at least half a dozen different vegetables. At the same time as he softens those vegetables, he boils some rice, and cooks some lentils and dried beans - from scratch - not out of a tin. Finally he beat up a whole lot of eggs and stirred them in to the vegetables - well I think he did. He didn't really show you what he finally did, just said he combined everything in a big bowl. He maintained that it took about an hour to make ten portions. The meat component seems to be added at the time of actual eating. So not only was it pretty bland - well I guess so because there were no flavourings - but it was also not quite as time-saving as I thought it might be.
Fundamentally there is nothing wrong with the idea behind it. Everyone seems to agree that it's quite nutritious and healthy as well as not being calory heavy. But so very boring. Surely you don't eat the same meal every night? And such a potentially tasteless one. I guess he might vary the meat component. And surely there are easier ways of making this kind of thing - all in one pot - or wok come to that.
As delicious. opening it's article by saying underneath this picture of Sticky thai beef and pineapple stir fry:
"What boy kibble COULD be, if they used a delicious. recipe."
So it's a stir-fry and in a smaller portion, but you could make a big batch and freeze that.
And you don't have to go to delicious. for a recipe either. There are plenty of other ideas out there and perhaps the very best one is from Nagi Maehashi Beef, rice and veggies because it's really a template for all kinds of variations - any vegetable, any meat - or fish and kind of flavouring. Obviously she has a detailed recipe but the whole thing is summed up at the beginning:
"This is made like a pilaf, starting off by sautéing onion and garlic for the flavour base. Then the beef and capsicum/bell peppers are added, then the rice and liquids and seasoning." Give it a good mix, plonk the lid on and leave it to do its thing.
No peeking! It’s one of the biggest rice cooking mistakes – if you peek, steam escapes which affects the rice cooking process!"
The pilaf approach is really one of the simplest and not much washing up either. Vegetables, softened, some kind of flavouring added - either from a jar or your pantry - add meat, add rice, add liquid, cover and simmer until done. You can even tart it up at the end with crunchy stuff fancy oils, lots of herbs, or even cheese.
And here are a couple of others to add as templates: Iraqi Timman Jazar (carrot rice) - Hungry Paprikas - the recipe includes ways of boosting it with meat; One-pot chicken and dirty rice - Done Chef
For the world has been cooking this kind of dish since time immemorial.
Alternatively you could take the stir-fry approach. Again there are thousands of options out there on the net, but I couldn't resist including this one from Noor Murad, because it's so beautiful. No meats, but eggs will do for the protein - Fried rice, but make it Mediterranean(ish)
Actually I guess it doesn't really meet the criteria, as the rice is pre-cooked and there aren't that many vegetables in it, but still so much better than dog food for humans.
I think what I found so sort of soulless about it all is that it confirmed a stereotype that boys are not into pretty - except when it comes to girls of course. And yes it is a sterotype, and the AFR endorsed the general view of what kind of young man went for this:
"a typical corporate worker in his tech pants, fleece 'or puffer'"
I find it so sad that they don't seem to see that the simple addition of some kind of flavouring - even if it does come out of a jar, would make all the difference, and that variety is the spice of life. That eating is a bright spot in the day and it's not that hard to make it tasty. Kibble is not variety. Witness this even drearier version that the one I started this article with. It's even worse than the mince of my childhood school dinner days.
YEARS GONE BY
February 25 - yesterday I mostly thought that it was the 25th so posted the wrong ones - so today I'm posting the missing 24th posts. Alas one day is much like another.
2023 - A shopping list story
2021 - Missing
2019 - A bush wedding
2018 - The perfume of tomatoes
Comments