The internet never fails to serve us strange food ideas that turn into global sensations. TikTok chefs and influencers love to push culinary boundaries, creating food choices that are either tasty or plain bizarre. Here are eight of the weirdest food trends that dominated our feeds.
8. The Great Feta Shortage of 2021
In early 2021, a simple recipe for baked feta pasta went viral on TikTok, causing a nationwide feta cheese shortage in Finland. The dish, created by Finnish food blogger Jenni Häyrinen, involves baking a block of feta with cherry tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil, then mixing it with pasta. The phenomenon even led to February 4th being declared “International Uunifetapasta Day” in the country.
7. Chamoy Pickle
This viral trend involves taking a dill pickle, drenching it in chamoy (a salty, sweet, sour, and spiced Mexican condiment), wrapping it in a Fruit Roll-Up, and then stuffing it with Takis. The result? A shocking, multi-sensory experience that captivated millions on TikTok. While some are horrified, others are obsessed with the intense combination of sweet, sour, spicy, and salty flavors.
6. Dubai Chocolate Bar
A viral video in late 2023 for a luxurious Dubai chocolate bar caused a global pistachio shortage and sent prices soaring. The bar, created by Emirati chocolatier Fix, features milk chocolate, crispy shredded phyllo pastry (knafeh), and a pistachio filling. Pistachio prices jumped from $7.65 to $10.30 per pound in a year, impacting agricultural economies in the US and Iran. The trend was so powerful that major chocolatiers like Lindt and Läderach created their own versions.
5. Frozen Honey
In the summer of 2021, a simple trend took over TikTok: eating frozen honey. The trend, which got nearly 600 million views on TikTok, involved users freezing honey in a plastic bottle and then squeezing it out to eat the frozen, jelly-like substance. The appeal was mainly ASMR-related, with the satisfying sound of honey being squeezed and eaten.
4. The FDA-Warned NyQuil Chicken
Perhaps one of the most bizarre and dangerous food trends to ever grace the internet is “NyQuil Chicken.” Also known as “Sleepy Chicken,” the trend was about cooking chicken breasts in the over-the-counter cold medicine. The trend was so alarming that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning against it. The FDA explained that boiling a medication can make it more concentrated and change its properties.
3. The Pink Sauce Saga
In the summer of 2022, a homemade “Pink Sauce” created by TikTok user Chef Pii went viral (for all the wrong reasons). Customers who ordered the sauce reported several issues: the color varied between batches, the packaging was poor, and the sauce contained milk but wasn’t being properly refrigerated, creating a risk of botulism. The creator admitted to not weighing the product and not understanding FDA regulations.
2. Cottage Cheese
In 2023, Gen Z influencers began using cottage cheese in everything from ice cream and cookie dough to pasta sauces. Sales of cottage cheese in the US jumped by 20% in a year, according to a CNN article published in July 2025. This trend demonstrates the internet’s power to completely rebrand a food item, taking it from a forgotten snack to a must-have ingredient.
1. Tanghulu
Tanghulu, a traditional Chinese street food, became a massive hit, thanks to its ASMR-worthy crunch. The trend involves coating various fruits like strawberries, grapes, and kiwis, in a hard candy shell. Besides being a delicious sweet treat, people love Tanghulu because of the satisfying sound of biting into candied shell, making it perfect for ASMR videos.