BANGKOK — A woman who makes penis-shaped waffles stuffed with sausage and cheese is experiencing brisk sales – and a public scolding – for her phallic food.
Ketnita Prasertsomboon of Pho Hai Ma (I Got It From My Dad) said she’s been selling out of the suggestively shaped waffle corn dogs at her Indy Market stall in western Bangkok but was feeling the heat from morality scolds.
“There were a lot of customers yesterday, even though it was raining,” she told Amarin TV on Sunday. “Some people told me that I’m doing something obscene and un-Buddhist. I got a bit stressed, but I didn’t fight back. I just want people to view it as a snack.”
Sales of Pho Hai Ma’s corn dogs surged after a video of customers eating the phallic food-on-a-stick went viral earlier this month. Since Sept. 16, the video has been watched more than 18 million times. Penis waffles are a well-established novelty in Taiwan.
Ketnita’s anatomically correct treats were thrust into the spotlight of controversy by a celebrity chef who couldn’t stomach such salacious snacks.
“From my time in the food industry, I never thought I would encounter food shaped like genitalia,” Yingsak Chonglertjetsadawong said Monday. “Would you buy this for your parents? Would you put this in a monk’s alms bowl? If a girl aged 7 or 8 was eating it on the street, is that something you’d want to see?”
She urged customers not to buy the waffles.
“Some women take photos of themselves about to eat the waffles, or even videos of themselves eating one to post online. It’s inappropriate and a bad example for the youth,” she said.
The waffles sell for 39 baht and come stuffed with a cheese-filled sausage. Customers can slather sweet and salty sauces atop them, such as ketchup, mayonnaise, strawberry, blueberry, and chocolate.
Veneration of phallic objects remains common as a legacy of animist traditions and Hindu worship of lingam, the divine penis of Shiva with great creative power. Phallic palad khik, commonly found in marketplaces everywhere, are worn as amulets for fortune and fertility.
Earlier this month, Bangkok’s Wat Bang Khun Thien Nork gained fame for erecting winged penis gargoyles throughout the temple, resulting in some patrons pulling support from the temple.
