‘Anjing banget’: Foul-mouthed reviewer of dessert becomes unlikely internet icon in Indonesia
by Nadia HamidThere are plenty of ways to promote F&B businesses online, but curse words and verbal aggression made for a successful recipe in the case of one man in the West Java capital of Bandung, who managed to convince his viewers that one particular stall sold the best beignet-like dessert.
Over the weekend, a 26-second clip of a man talking to the camera while eating a fried dough snack called odading made its rounds on social media, piquing the curiosity of Indonesian netizens and inspiring a slew of memes. The clip was first uploaded by a Bandung-based aspiring YouTuber named Ade Londok on his Instagram page, in which he promoted Odading Mang Soleh, a stall that sells odading.
A repost of the video on Twitter below, which was posted on Friday, has amassed more than 1.9 million views and over 24,000 retweets.
In rough Sundanese, Ade spoke to his viewers and urged them to try the dessert.
“Odading Mang Oleh, hmmm… it tastes like you’re Iron Man. Buy Odading Mang Oleh, if you’re not eating Odading Mang Oleh, you can’t hang out with me, you’re not my friend, dumbass! Sharks that eat tomatoes are dumbasses! if you don’t come here, you’re a dumbass. Odading Mang Oleh, rasanya anjing banget (the taste is so good, dog),” Ade said almost nonsensically while promoting the stall.
Ade’s hilarious delivery naturally inspired a bunch of memes, many of which directly referenced Iron Man or the shark he randomly mentioned in his promotion of the stall.
Ade’s viral marketing, whether he meant to or not, seems to have put Odading Mang Oleh on the map with several netizens already reporting that they’ve checked out the stall for themselves — presumably because they don’t want to be “goblog” for missing out, as Ade alluded to about naysayers in the video.
“The taste was indeed so good, dog, the first bite made me feel like Iron Man. But really the odading was good,” the user above tweeted.
Odading itself is a popular traditional snack in Bandung, usually sold together with cakwe (youtiao, salty deep-fried long strips of dough originating from China). As it’s basically a sweet fried dough, some might say that odading is the local take on donuts or beignets. In other areas of Indonesia, odading is usually called kue bantal (pillow cakes) due to its shape, while in Central Java it’s known as bolang-baling because the doughs are frequently turned over as they’re being fried. Odading is usually served plain or sprinkled with sesame seeds before it’s fried.
Legend has it that the name odading actually originated from the colonial times, when a Dutch child asked his mother to buy him a then-unnamed fried dessert sold by a street seller.
“O, dat ding (Oh, that thing)?” the Dutch lady said to her child as he pointed to the dessert.
The seller went back to his village and told his mother that the snack was named odading, and the rest is history.
If you want to try Odading Mang Soleh once it’s safe to travel again (or if you live in Bandung), the stall is located on Baranang Siang street near Kosambi Market in the center of Bandung. Using a family recipe, the stall has been serving fried desserts since 1987. Ryan, the son of the stall’s founder, said on Saturday that he has served many customers, mainly from nearby Cimahi and Padalarang, since Ade’s video made its rounds on the internet.
As for Ade, this isn’t actually the first video of him going viral. Back in July, Ade gained a bit of fame after a video of him comically crying in front of the camera while telling a story about the 36 times he had bought toasts for the woman he likes, who apparently didn’t like him back. It’s unclear what Ade does for a living (besides being a viral marketing genius, it seems), but he frequently promotes products or others’ Instagram accounts on his page.
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