Current Food Trends Put to the Test 

BY FREYA WILKINSON '23 

Do you ever come across random recipes and shake your head, mystified as to who would ever dream up such concoctions? 

​Over the past few years, weird food trends have exploded in popularity due to their uniqueness and virality. However, you might be surprised to discover that many of these funky combinations actually work. Trying all of these different recipes on your own is a lot of work, so we’ll simplify things and put these viral recipes to the test ourselves. They’ll be ranked on a scale of one to five, from atrocious to *chef’s kiss* delicious! I was joined by a couple friends, to hopefully produce the most accurate results! Now, let’s begin.

Scrumptious food trends
First, we will start off with “Fancy Mug Mac and Cheese.” This isn’t your ordinary mac and cheese, because get this: it’s made using a microwave. Crazy, right? Well, you will be shocked to find out it works! We started with raw pasta and water in a coffee mug, added various spices, and microwaved it. After a few minutes, we were surprised to see it was cooked! Also, the pasta tasted deliciously cheesy, as all mac and cheese should be. I highly recommend you give this one a try! Rating: 4/5

Next, we have a sweet twist to a classic breakfast drink: coffee! This is the famous dalgona coffee. Let’s see what happens! Dalgona is a traditional Korean sweet, and this dalgona coffee has its roots in the candy. The “whipping” is the key part! We whipped coffee, sugar, and water together, and after what felt like hours (and turned out to be pretty close—45 minutes!) we successfully achieved whipped status. We dolloped the whipped coffee into a glass of milk, and—voila—there was the dalgona coffee. The taste? Delicious! While it is definitely not worth the effort on a daily basis, this yummy treat would be an amazing treat to make with friends. Rating: 5/5

Absolutely, disgustingly revolting food trends
After such surprisingly delicious treats, these next two recipes may sour your appetite. Let’s begin with an interesting drink: lettuce tea. Known for its supposed sleep benefits, lettuce tea seems to be the latest health fad. You may be wondering, does lettuce tea really help you sleep? Well, don’t fret, you asked (well, not really, but ehh) and we delivered! We began with a chunk of lettuce and simply covered it with boiling water. That's it! It tasted bland, and the wilted lettuce looked gross. This tea didn’t really make us sleepy. And further research shows that this tea has no scientific support. Rating: 2/5

Last, and definitely not least, we have hot cheeto pickles. Cheetos are some of the most common ingredients in viral recipes lately. Using a big jar of store-bought pickles, pour out the juice and infuse Flamin’ Hot Cheetos with it. After putting the pickles back into the newly-infused juice, they should be left to ferment for a certain amount of time (this is unclear and differs depending on the recipe). This was the grossest of all. The vinegar taste combined with the Flamin’ Hot Cheeto cheese curdled our taste buds and made us question if food is good. And food is always good. *Dramatically sobs* This was by far the worst of the viral recipes; however, it was so uniquely disgusting that we wouldn’t be surprised if it pleased the most *ahem* unique palates. Rating: 1/5

Were you surprised to find out that some of these food trends actually ended up working? There seems to be so many viral recipes online these days that it feels impossible to attempt just one. However, there are countless hidden gems that can only be found if you give them a try!