Things I Like: Torwai, AKA Delicious_Rock

The internet used to be good. I promise that is true. It was also bad, in both the same and different ways it is now, but there were plenty of good pockets of it. The biggest difference is that we have decided the internet Matters now. It did not used to Matter. Once upon a time, the internet was for championing our inner stupidity, and for pushing the limits of our creativity. We did those things without putting any thought into metrics or trends or likes and subscribes. It was not performative, or at least, it was performative in the way a musical is performative: We sing, or post, because no other form of expression will do. It was purely human. This is how we got The End of the World . This is how we got David After Dentist . This is how we got Potion Seller . This is how we got Leeroy Jenkins . It was Democracy Manifest .

No one was arguing about if One Battle After Another was too political and/or not political enough, or pretending to root against their own country in the Olympics to score cool points. The president of the United States was not writing incomprehensible screeds on his own social media network. No Celebrities were not obligated to make dance videos at the behest of their PR teams in some jumbled attempt to stay relevant with teens who only interact with art through short clips. It was, in a word, nice. Wholesome. There was a whole lot of nasty fucking shit out there too, but even that nasty fucking shit was wholesome in a way. Simpler.

It continued like that for a while. Even into the mid- and late 2010s there were gems. We were Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme . We danced in celebration with the Ghanaian pallbearers . But the internet was bad by then, because things Mattered. In retrospect, I think the change happened on August 9, 2014, when Michael Brown was murdered by the Ferguson Police Department . I was in college at the time. I remember staying up til 2 or 3 a.m. reading posts that night. My Twitter feed was angry, and I was angry, and I wasn't having any fun. We never really put the toothpaste back in the tube after that. How could we? It was cathartic to get those feelings out, but it came at a cost.

From then on, the internet was for posting political opinions. Specifically, as time went on, it was about posting the correct political opinions. Which opinions were those? Depends on your audience! But the internet was for that, and also for doing the same thing everyone else is doing, no matter what it is, because we have become much more internet lonely. This is different from real life lonely, and it is what was caused by the death of forums and message boards, which kicked ass and were full of the most deranged posts you can imagine (mostly complimentary).

So that's bad enough, but now every social media CEO is a psychopath who values artificial intelligence more than human life. Or at the very least, values money more than human life. So I stopped using it, mostly, except for a few scrolls of Bluesky and YouTube videos (I mean, duh) and also Letterboxd. I do not use TikTok or Facebook, and I try not to use Instagram when I can avoid it.

But I saw something recently that made me smile. It reminded me of the internet that did not Matter. It is Torwai, also known as Delicious_Rock, and it whips fucking ass.

I am not sure if Torwai is the name of the main guy (the singer) or if it is the name of a band that he and the drummer are in. I don't think the drummer is in every video? Which makes me think Torwai is the singer. I could be wrong! Either way, Torwai videos all follow a familiar formula: People cover a metal/hardcore song in a very tiny kitchen while the singer cooks an entire meal. "But Ryan, don't the videos only last the length of the song, so like 3-4 minutes?" Yes. I confess I don't know the exact country where this is all going down, but it appears to be somewhere in Southeast Asia, and that cuisine can come together quickly. Torwai is cooking with VERY high heat, while trying to sing some very difficult songs. Sometimes he nails both things. Sometimes this happens:

There's a drummer somewhere in that picture, behind the wall of flames.

I love everything about this. Without fail, the kitchen becomes a torrent of chaos. Spices are flying, meat is sizzling and voices are wailing and/or screaming. And you know what? Todd Glass was right . The live drummer adds so much panache to recorded music it's unbelievable.

Not only do these videos make me feel insane to watch on a conceptual level, but Torwai is genuinely talented. Listen to him hit the high notes in "Golden," from last year's mega-smash KPOP Demon Hunters:

(Watching this back just now, I noticed the drummer is not here. More evidence that Torwai is just the singer, plus a revolving door of musician and cooking friends.)

The channel has been around for several years, but only recently came to my attention, and seemingly the attention of many others. I enjoy this whole conceit so much that I reached out to Torwai see if he/they wanted to do an interview. I did not hear back. This is understandable. I'm sure he/they get lots of DMs now that the channel is getting a million+ views on some videos. Also, I don't know if he/they speak English conversationally or if they just know enough to sing it in cover songs. It's very possible, and understandable, he/they just don't want to any interviews in English at all, let alone from a former journalist turned Leaflet blogger(?).

That said, here's all the questions I would have asked if Torwai had done an interview with me:

Did you get this idea while making a stir fry and screaming along with Limp Bizkit or something?

Do you know that at least one 31-year-old blogger is simultaneously delighted by all of this and also worried you are going to burn your house down?

How do you choose what songs to cover?

Who are your musical influences?

How did you learn to cook? Are you a professional?

Do you match the food you make to the song?

How often do you set off the fire alarm?

Is that kitchen up to code?

Do you worry about smoke inhalation?

Have any performances gone awry to such a degree that you couldn't put the video out?

Is all of the food properly cooked?

Does all the food get eaten after the video?

Does it always taste good?

Do you have a dream guest you'd want to perform with you?

What about a dream chef to cook with you?

Are you surprised that these videos have caught fire (so to speak)?

Why is Saosin so underrated?

What's one dish from your country that I, a mid-ass white man, should make?

Is this all as fun as it looks?

Really hope the answer to that last one is yes. The internet will never not Matter again, but we can pretend it doesn't, 3-4 fiery minutes at a time.