Emily Mariko's Salmon Rice Bowl

About

Emily Mariko's Salmon Rice Bowl refers to a dish created by TikTok user and influencer Emily Mariko that went viral on the app in September of 2021. She created the dish using salmon, rice, sauces, and surprisingly, an ice cube. The recipe gained tens of millions of views and netted Mariko millions of followers in less than a month, leading to recreations and parodies on the app.

Origin

On September 21st, 2021, food and lifestyle vlogger Emily Mariko posted the first video in which she made her salmon rice bowl. Much of the preparation is ordinary: she crushes the salmon and mixes it in rice, but then takes out an ice cube and places it in the salmon-rice mix. She covers the rice, salmon and ice cube with parchment paper and places them in the microwave. After removing the paper and ice cube, she adds sauces and an avocado. The video gained over 33 million views on TikTok in nine days. Mariko's subscriber count went from 70,000 to over 1 million in the week since she first posted her salmon video.^[2]

Spread

Over the following week, many TikTokers and reporters reported seeing the video on their #ForYou page,^[1][2] which in turn led to Mariko's recipe becoming a sensation on the platform. Multiple TikTok users attempted to recreate the recipe with their own spin (stovetop version by @ssooophhia shown below, left), while others expressed their confusion as to how the ice does not melt in the microwave (example by @madimarotta shown below, right).

The popularity of the video also led to parodies on the platform. For example, on September 29th, 2021, user @theotherari proved she could narrate the TikTok with her eyes closed, gaining over 238,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). The same day, user @cryingb0y posted a video parodying the Mariko-style video, captioning it "My entire FYP." The video gained over 312,000 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References