The food we eat today has come to our plates after going through quite an evolution. Humans started as raw meat eaters and stew makers, then became farmers and now culinary experts.
We have people creating their own YouTube channels and sharing their recipes, regardless of whether they are professional chefs. We went from eating the blandest food, to discovering the power of spices, and now people freely experiment with flavours and make unusual food combinations.
But how did we get here?
Food in the Ancient and Medieval Times
One of the earliest cookbooks passed down in recorded history is Apicius, which described hundreds of Roman food recipes. The book is named after a Roman merchant, Marcus Gavias Apicius, who went to great lengths to get good ingredients.
But before we even came to the ingredients part, we were hunting animals and eating them fresh. A thousand years ago, food was a daily goal, and we did not have any means to preserve what we hunted. When we invented fire, we learned how to cook the food we obtained. As farmers, we discovered the ability to create food for ourselves.
But to reach that point, it took thousands and thousands of years. And today, we have reached a place where we have access to food all the time.
Food Now
We are no longer hunting animals or gathering herbs for sustenance. Instead, we are scrolling through food delivery apps and choosing what we would like to have depending on our "mood.”_ Today, the decision lies in whether I should get this or that. The number of different varieties of food has increased, and so have our taste buds.
We can trace the evolution of food today from the perspective of culture as well. Every community had a different way of preparing the same dish, and every community had its own signature meal.
Our exposure to meals from different cultures, whether through traveling or visiting diverse restaurants in our area, has changed our relationships and expectations of food. We now crave. We no longer just eat what is on the plate.
Especially in India, where the daily meal differs vastly from region to region and culture to culture, we have more diversity in our food, which may also mean that some creative minds will probably get to work on creating something unusual. Whether they are tasty or not is irrelevant.
Cooking food has not only become a commendable profession, but it has also become a form of statement and self-expression. We can tell a lot about a person from the dishes they cook or eat outside, their financial status, their taste, and their ethnicity.
Chefs have their speciality dishes, and we all have strange food combinations that we get from social media.
Social Media’s Influence and Unusual Flavor Combinations
Whether the trend came from different food hacks on TikTok or just people wanting views through novelty content, they have caught the fever of coming up with weird combinations and unusual food.
In 2021, feta pasta became viral in the US through TikTok. But in India, we are seeing weird combinations that, to be frank, may either be completely disgusting or moderately bearable.
Recently, the most trending weird food combination is Maggie Ice Cream, and according to The Indian Express, it has left netizens in a “flavorful frenzy.”. This is a combination of savoury noodles and sweet ice cream, but is it worth making or consuming?
Some of the comments left on social media range from people feeling disgusted to people claiming to try out the new creation, but I happen to fall in the former category, who is disgusted and in shock by this blend of Maggi noodles, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce.
Similarly, the phenomenon of blueberry samosas arose in January of this year, where samosas have fillings of blueberry instead of the spicy, savoury filling of potato and peas topped with green chutney.
People are commenting on posts like “You will go to hell” and “This was all I had left to see.”_
There are other examples of weird food combinations, like Fanta Maggi, people eating toothpicks, Gulab Jamun Paratha, Chole Bhature Ice Cream Roll, Pizza Banana, Ferrero Rocher Pasta, Cadbury Avocado, and much, much more.
Where is this trend coming from? Some say it originated from TikTok, where people share these weird food combinations and depend on the audience’s disgust and shock to get views and comments. The more appalling and outlandish, the more views.
It is also possible that these TikTokers or social media enthusiasts deliberately cook weird food combinations out of feeding the audience visual content, and many feel this is how they are getting traction; it's not the mention of these combinations but rather their visual image, video, or making of the item. Some also say it can be a weird fetish.
Others say it was just born out of the desire to be fun and creative. They want to experiment and see which flavours are blending and which are providing a unique taste. Even our sensory perception can play a role in deciding which texture and flavour are ideal.
Social media gives it attention because of the polarizing nature of the content, along with attracting rage-bait followers who leave comments expressing their disgust or even making fun of the influencer who created it.
While I am all for people experimenting with different flavours and textures, I am opposed to influencers wasting food to create this type of content. Additionally, I fear that this type of engagement will eventually become the way we start preferring food; it should just be a trend and not turn into something that becomes tasteful advice.
Edited by Kevin Moonuparayil
Photo Credit: Curly Tales
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