The cutest way to sell me a Thai supermarket: Ingredients

Welcome to Ky's Cozy Corner. We are here today to discuss a wholesome series with episodes that are the perfect length to enjoy on your coffee break. So grab a mug of something hot and a baked good, as a Canadian, I'd recommend a tasty chocolate-y nanaimo bar and big mug of cardamom chai tea. Get cozy, because here we go.

Ingredients is a short, sweet 2020 BL designed by a Thai grocery chain, Tops, to sell us on their recipes and food stuffs. It stars Jeff Satur, who you may recognize from Kinnporsche among other series and Gameplay Garnpaphon Laolerkiat. The two also appear together in He She It a mini series from 2019.

Although Gameplay has a fair number of acting credits under his belt, he actually graduated from Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. Fun fact, Gameplay's real life pet kitty is the Bambino cat that appears in episode 12 - Attraction. So cute.

Speaking of adorableness, Ingredients is an easily digestible series with 21 bite-sized 5 to 20 minute episodes. It tells a sweet, slice of life story of two roommates slowly realizing that they like each other. That's right and then they were roommates...

Jeff plays Marwin or Win, a rather clueless boy that wants to grow up to be a musician. Throughout the course of the series, you get to see Jeff make use of his singer-songwriter talents. Meanwhile, Jeff's roommate Tops, whom I have lovingly nicknamed the Food Angel, loves to cook and possesses a dish for every occasion no matter if you are man or beast. He knows the way to Win's heart is through his stomach.

It's also fun to note that the YT series that Win helps his Food Angel record does actually exist. That's right you can see Gameplay teaching you his cooking wizardry for real in the Food Design series. And yes, this companion cooking series does have English captions. So yes, you too can enjoy Food Angel homemade treats as seen in the series.

Over the course of the series, we see Win slowly realizing how much he loves Tops. I think it's clear from the jump that Tops loves Win, he dotes on him enough. A prime example would be episode 19 - Out of Control. Win gets very drunk and his friend brings him home in a right state. Tops completely ignores the friend, Dome, in favour of very tenderly wiping up Win's sweat and lovingly treating his minor head wound.

Win on the other hand, is not as quick on the uptake. It is evident by episode 4 - Neighbor, that Win doesn't like that Tops is cooking for their hot, injured neighbor, and he gets quite jealous. However, by the subsequent episode 8, Extraordinary Win is back to taking Tops for granted. He just expects Tops to be a perfect housewife, cooking for his friend.

It's not that Win doesn't care entirely, episode 6 - Helpful, he helps Tops start his own online video cooking series, Food Design. In episode 7 - Caring, Tops is ill and Win pulls out all the stops, even going so far as to cook for him.

However, I am sure we can all agree, that Win is oblivious to the true depth of his feelings for his Food Angel, until some real competition enters the picture in episode 16 - Closer. In this episode, Tops is catering a Halloween party and Win, who was there to assist him, is called upon to provide the entertainment of the evening, when the host's musician cancels. Instead, Win's friend Dome offers to help Tops and tries to hit on an oblivious Tops in the process, much to Win's displeasure.

This episode is really pivotal for the series, we get the first kiss in this series. It is also one of the longer episodes, we get to see a fair amount of Jeff serenading us, which is amazing. At the end of the night, a drunk Win can't hold in his feelings any longer and ends up stealing a cheek kiss from Tops in the car at the end of the night.

I won't spoil the end of the series for anyone hoping to give it a go, but in the latter half of the series, Win gets an audition for an international singing opportunity D8. If Win succeeds, he will realize his dream of becoming a famous singer, but he will also have to travel abroad for a while.

All in all, I would give this series an 8/10. It is fluffy and cute, not a lot of substance, but it does have much to recommend it. The two leads have great chemistry, and unlike many other Thai BLs we are not stuck in university again. Also, I appreciate that we are breaking the standard moulds for leads that I tend to see in these kinds of dramas that have a hint of seme/uke about them with a baby-faced boy and big strong man see Ae/Pete of Love by Chance or Saifah/Zon from Why R U or even Tharn/Type of TharnType. Tops and Win do not fall into that standard trope which is refreshing.

So yes, if you have 15 minutes to spare and want a sweet treat, I recommend Ingredients all of its episodes are available for free on YouTube.

Next time you visit me in the cozy corner, we will be discussing a longer series episode by episode, Why R U. If you would like to watch along with me, I am watching subbed episodes on myasiantv.cc but it is also available on Viki.

Can't get enough Jeff and Gameplay? Tops grocery chain also gave them an Unbagging series with English subtitles (you have to do, autotranslate - English, but it's better than most.) And finally, an interview of what could have been Gameplay as Porchay in Kinnporsche.