Food moments that went viral in 2024, from Dubai chocolate to cucumber guy

Pistachios, muffins and sweet street food dishes have grabbed attention online this year

Chinese sweet treat tanghulu has gone viral this year. Zhu Jian / Flickr

Remember when “girl dinner” took over our feeds last year? Or when savoury feta fried eggs had everyone flipping out? And let’s not forget the crunchy date bark craze – equal parts snackable and photogenic. Ah, food trends – where the internet’s appetite meets culinary prowess.

If you’re a foodie and / or a regular online scroller, you know the drill – every year, the web dishes out recipes that spark debates, fuel memes and leave us collectively drooling. And 2024 was no different. From hot takes to kitchen hits, here are the viral bites and moments that fed our obsession this year.

Tanghulu

A humble street food from northern China, tanghulu has made its way to food carts and supermarkets around the world – with many popular content creators and celebrities trying it out.

The viral dessert, made simply by coating fruits in a candied shell, was an inescapable piece of content for many TikTok and Instagram users early in the year. It helped that its crunch also has the makings of a sedate yet scrumptious ASMR video, adding to its viral quality.

The dessert is straightforward in terms of how it's made, with no technical culinary skills needed – although some still struggle, much to the internet's delight. It is made by skewering fruits, usually strawberries or grapes, together, before coating them with melted sugar and dunking into an ice bath. The result is a shiny, sweet treat with a satisfying crunch.

Cucumber guy

Soon after sugary tanghulu's fruity fame, everyone turned their eyes to veg – largely thanks to Canadian content creator Logan Moffitt, also known as “cucumber guy”, and his viral salad recipes featuring the humble cucumber. He starts his videos with what has become his catchphrase: “Sometimes you need to eat an entire cucumber”.

Moffitt's first viral recipe, posted in July, included sliced cucumbers in soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, spring onions and MSG. It racked up more than 12 million views almost immediately, as well as earning him the cucumber moniker. Since then, he has posted dozens of salad recipes, employing different sauces and seasonings.

People have been replicating his recipes ever since and, at one point, the social media trend was being blamed for a cucumber shortage in Icelandic supermarkets. Forbes also reported a rise in sales of mandoline slicers, which is what Moffitt uses in his recipes. Cucumber recipes were also some of most sought out, according to Google's 2024 Year in Search report.

Olympic chocolate muffins

Food was a big talking point at the Paris 2024 Olympics, especially as it was hosted in the global culinary hub that is France. About 13 million meals were served to athletes, spectators and officials, with the catering partner of the games producing about 500 recipes along the themes of French, Asian, Africa-Caribbean and world cuisine.

What caught people's attention online were the decadent chocolatey muffins baked fresh at the Athlete's Village. The jumbo-sized treats, popularised by Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen on TikTok, come filled with chunks of dark and milk chocolate, complete with a luscious dark chocolate ganache in the centre. People were quick to recreate the muffins, lauding the recipe as an “energy-packed treat for champions”.

Dubai chocolate bar

The kunafa-inspired chocolate bar has spawned a number of copycats. @fixdessertchocolatier / Instagram

The UAE enjoys its fair share of global viral moments (think Emirati hot chocolate and gold-crusted treats). This year, online food fame came in the form of a kunafa-filled chocolate bar, made by Dubai's Fix Dessert Chocolatier, the brainchild of British-Egyptian entrepreneur Sarah Hamouda.

The chunky bar is made of shredded filo pastry and pistachio cream encased in milk chocolate. At the peak of its social media success, the company was reportedly fulfilling 100 orders per minute, and the brand recently launched in Abu Dhabi, too.

Social media pundits quickly caught on and got inventive. One TikTok video showing the kunafa-inspired chocolate bar has been viewed more than 90 million times, with many foodies and content creators from around the world uploading videos of themselves sampling it. Several versions of the original chocolate are now available on the market.

Making everything from scratch

The past year also saw a return to the basics, in the form of the “make it from scratch” movement that swept through kitchens worldwide – arguably led by content creator Nara Smith, whose videos on TikTok regularly go more than the one-million-views mark. It's not just that she makes everything from scratch – from soda, butter, and even toothpaste and sunscreen – but also that she does it in flamboyant designer outfits.

People have branded her as a “trad wife”, another concept thrown out on social media to describe female content creators who exhibit traditional gender roles. While there's a lot of discussion about Smith's persona online, many social media users still look up to her ingenious recipes.