Like many, we wondered what TikTok’s famous food trends really tasted like. Over the course of three hours, we made and tried the viral Dubai chocolate bar, cucumber salad, and tanghulu. Here are our thoughts and rankings for them.
Dubai Chocolate Bar – 3/5
The Dubai Chocolate bar by The Dodo Chocolates caught the attention of many when it was described as the best chocolate bar in the world by TikTok users, only accessible in Dubai. Naturally, people were desperate to try it and took it to their own kitchens to make it for themselves. After partaking in the trend, we decided the bar was average compared to the hype it received, but then again, we were making it with different and Americanized versions of the original ingredients. For instance, the Dubai chocolate bar uses specific Belgian chocolate that goes through a tedious heating and cooling process to give it the perfect tempered consistency when you bite into it. For our recipe, we used Lily’s baking dark chocolate chips melted down with coconut oil to line our molds. We found that even with different brands, the pairing of pistachio and dark chocolate was nice, however, it was still overly sweet. While the kataifi, a shredded and toasted phyllo dough, brought no flavor to the dessert, it did add a crunch that made the bar much more satisfying to eat.
Making the bar wasn’t necessarily difficult, but was a far too tedious process for what the end product was. It was a nice treat but something we probably would not make again, therefore we rate it a 3/5.
Cucumber Salad – 5/5
Inspired by Logan Moffitt, a creator on TikTok, the cucumber salad was light, refreshing and tangy. It combines ingredients such as cucumbers, green onions, garlic, soy sauce, toasted sesame seeds and garlic salt. This dish is the perfect snack as it’s quick, easy and healthy. We liked this dish the most overall because it leaves room for creativity. For instance, online there are many variants of the salad because there are so many ingredients that pair well with cucumbers. Additionally, the ingredients are common among households. For example, items like soy sauce or garlic are far more common compared to the Turkish ingredient, kataifi, used in the Dubai Chocolate bar. Overall, we rate this snack a 5/5 because it is quick, simple and hard to mess up.
Tanghulu – 1/5
Tanghulu is an Asian dessert made with sugar and fruit on a skewer. This was by far the most difficult recipe for us. It started well, but we couldn’t get the sugar to melt to the right consistency without burning it. The sugar started to clump together making a mess. Towards the end of making the treat, we learned that the sugar needed to be bubbling and have a light golden brown color for it to form the sugar shell around the fruit. Further, eating tanghulu even when made correctly, was less enjoyable than what videos online presented. We found that the sugar shell sticks to your teeth, making the experience of eating less enjoyable. Ultimately, the cons far outweighed the pros for this recipe. We realized the fruit was better on its own and rated it 1/5.
BY LILA COMBS AND ROWEN KIBBY
