“For anyone over 25, TikTok is a bewildering world of silly dance numbers and lip-syncing teenagers. But it is also a breeding ground for authentic culinary creativity. Dalgona coffee, cloud bread, pasta with feta, hot chocolate bombs – all these recipes have spread thanks to TikTok […]. Will social networks replace cookbooks? Pitifully determined to try and stay trendy, I’m going to feed largely on TikTok recipes for a week.”
On Rhik’s menu, nearly 20 recipes ranging from fatty to very fatty. “My stomach rumbles like an animal trying to talk. He had his dose”, the human guinea pig is having fun after stuffing himself with fried chicken prepared in the style of the KFC fast food chain.
“TikTok recipes are simple. These pop music videos are about eight seconds long, frenetically edited and looping, which after a while makes you feel like you’re undergoing heightened interrogation.”
After four days of a diet dangerously lacking in fruits and vegetables, the author worries: “I may be hallucinating from a lack of vitamins.”
A Snickers in a pickle
Rhik still finds a few recipes to his liking: nature’s cereal, fresh berries with coconut water and ice cubes; frozen grapes with flavored gelatin, “sweet, frozen, addictive to eat and magical to contemplate” ; or of “succulents corn ribs”, quartered corn on the cob, brushed with a mixture of oil and spices and fried in a hot air fryer – “Tiktokers are obsessed with the air fryer.”
Among the recipes that Rhik would have preferred not to try, a bubble tea with rice paper – “The worst thing you’ve ever put in your mouth” – and the “Snickle”, an assembly of a Snickers and a pickle (we denote by pickle foods preserved in vinegar).
“Putting a Snickers in a pickle sounds like a joke, but I had a mission to complete. I would describe it as an effective way to ruin your day, your week, or even your entire year. Not surprising that [le Covid-19] strives to deprive us of taste. We don’t use it wisely.”