This Salmon And Rice Recipe Went Viral On TikTok, So I Tried It, And Without A Doubt, It Slaps
Food TikTok is the best TikTok. And if you're on food TikTok, you've definitely been graced with the tranquil, soothing vibes of Emily Mariko and her pristinely clean kitchen.
@emilymariko Best lunch of the week!
♬ original sound - Emily Mariko
The 29-year-old blew up on TikTok in the span of a few days after her leftover salmon recipe went viral.
She went from 30,000 subscribers to more than 3 million in the span of two weeks.
After watching everyone and their mom re-create the recipe, I had to try it out for myself.
The ingredients she uses are soy sauce, sriracha, seaweed snacks, white rice, salmon, kimchi, avocado, and kewpie mayo. I couldn't find kewpie mayo, so I opted for Yum Yum sauce instead.
Whenever Emily makes her dish, she uses leftover salmon from the night before. Since I didn't have any, I quickly pan roasted some salmon with garlic, soy sauce, ginger, and spiced honey.
If this were actually leftovers, I'd obviously want to heat them up. Emily always uses an ice cube trick to heat her salmon and rice where she places an ice cube in the middle of her rice, and then covers it with parchment paper (or a paper towel) before placing in the microwave. This helps the rice to stay moist.
It's fun because the ice doesn't melt either. #Science.
You then take your plate out of the microwave and use a fork to shred the salmon while mixing it into the rice.
And then you start to add your toppings: sliced avocado, kimchi, soy sauce, kewpie mayo (or Yum Yum sauce), and sriracha.
Now, if you really want to complete the Emily Mariko simulation, you grab a piece of dried seaweed and use your chopsticks to pinch the rice/salmon mixture into the seaweed as you pick it up.
Yum.
Now, it's time for the best part: eating it.
I have to say, I expected it to be good, but it was GREAT. I love salmon, I love sushi, and I love anything that has a sauce, so it was definitely a delicious way to make a relatively simple lunch. I will say that I am not as poised or cultured as Emily and found it way easier to get a solid salmon-rice:seaweed-snack ratio when I just used the chopsticks to spoon the mixture onto the seaweed.
Haters will say this is nothing but a glorified disassembled sushi bowl, and while that might be true, it's still ingenious to make the most out of a leftover meal.
Overall, I'd give this an 8/10. I think it would have been a 10/10 if I'd had kewpie mayo, because the Yum Yum sauce makes it a bit too sweet.
We can all thank Emily Mariko for getting half of the population of TikTok to rush out and buy seaweed snacks.
