FB account of failed culinary attempts during MCO gets 1.5m followers in 10 days

Within 10 days after it started on April 14, the page had 1.5 million followers, and was so popular it caught the attention of Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who mentioned it in his special message which was telecast live on Thursday.

Norlaila Dollah-Ahmed, 46, who started the account, said the page was set up to share her attempts at cooking which failed as well as those of other Facebook users.

She never imagined that it would catch on with so many other people that it even caught the eye of the Prime Minister.

"The idea to start the account came to me because I like to cook and share recipes on my Facebook account, and there were some people who followed my recipes but the product of their efforts did not turn out right.

"I myself once tried to make serunding (meat floss) but failed miserably and the product was a burnt mess. So I thought of sharing that experience on Facebook so that we can all laugh about IT, especially in the current MCO time.

"After the account was created, the number for followers increased and it went viral and so popular that the Prime Minister even mentioned it, which took me by surprise," she told Bernama here.

The mother of two said since the PM mentioned the account in his speech, there were 200,000 new requests from people who wanted to follow it

"Right now, we have 20,000 posts which are still pending before we upload them as there are just too many as well as requests from people who want to be followers. We need time to vet the requests, and postings.

"I also feel good when I see people post comments and their laughter when they see the postings in the account," she said.

However, Norlaila who runs a sundry shop in Nilai here said, there are also people who said the account was created to encourage people to waste and make fun of food.

"My intention was just to have a few laughs, not to make fun of food or to encourage people to waste it.

"So we have to vet the postings which we feel intentionally waste food or contained google photos," she said.

Norlaila also urged followers of the account to be more careful with their comments so as not to make fun of food and hurt the feelings of others.