The time between breakfast and lunch is the longest stretch of the day, and while most days you end up with soggy leftovers or some sad attempt at reinventing avocado toast, today, you want more. Why? Because you're on Emily Mariko TikTok, and you now know that lunch is more than just a checkpoint that separates the beginning and end of the day. In Mariko's world, lunch can take center stage.
The 29-year-old Bay Area lifestyle and food influencer, and her completely clutter-free kitchen, has taken over TikTok with her quiet cooking videos. Mariko prepares everything from deconstructed sushi bowls to toast with attention to detail, like peeling citrus and grating her own cheese. The only reason you can't remember her most viral recipe is if you've lost internet in the past month; her salmon rice bowl has been viewed more than 50 million times on TikTok.
While some meals are more complicated than others, they are all made with care, and no one on the planet has such patience for lunch food. Grilled chicken legs before sunset? Clam linguine on a weekday? Sweetgreen Country can't even do that.
Before Emily Mariko (BEM, as future anthropologists will call this era), you had no idea that lunch needed to be chopped, toasted, and seasoned—and that it was all worth it, because, self-care! But now you're done, sharpening your knives, gathering produce, donning monochrome athleisure, and getting ready to make lunchtime a part of your healthy routine. Here are eight of Mariko's best lunch recipes—except, well, you know one of them:
Roasted Nut Salad
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Mariko often toasts nuts and seeds before adding them to salads, which gives them extra crunch and a richer flavor. Just a few extra minutes can elevate a salad from a cold soggy thing in the refrigerator to a dish you might serve as a main course at a restaurant. This beet, cheese, and toasted almond salad will make you long for the kind of person who takes the time and effort to warm up nuts.
Ham-wrapped fruit salad
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It's something you might imagine seeing on a menu in an Italian coastal town—not sitting on a perpetually sticky kitchen counter. But for just a few dollars more at the grocery store, this could also be your American lunch. Here, Mariko slices open ripe melons and pears and wraps the juicy crescents in strips of savory prosciutto. To round out the meal, she sliced open some tomatoes, piled them around a pile of creamy burrata cheese, and sprinkled them generously with salt, pepper, and olive oil.
tomato toast
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It's simple, but more special than regular buttered toast. Mariko warms up some country bread, slathers it with cream cheese, and garnishes it with some perfectly seasoned tomatoes. A bone-tingling crunch.
leftover tortillas
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One of Mariko's greatest talents is turning leftovers into inspiration for new meals. While last night's dinners may not have you dizzying from the confines of refrigerated Tupperware, reimagining them in the warm embrace of stove-baked tortillas and fresh seasonings will certainly give them the change they deserve. Here, Mariko transforms last night's Mexican rice bowl into today's guacamole tacos.
poke bowl
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If your refrigerator is stocked with cucumbers and carrots and they're not calling your name like a drool-worthy siren, then you haven't seen Mariko's perfectly shaved veggie star take center stage in her poke bowl. Here, she mixes the farmer's market bounty with leftover rice and Asian market staples like kimchi and sesame relish to create colorful lunches in minutes.
Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
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For a vegetarian spin on buffalo wings, Mariko roasts cauliflower florets, marinates them in a spicy sauce, and pairs them with carrot and ranch dressing, apple slices, and fresh juice for what she calls a "school lunchbox vibe." ".
Country Lettuce Salad
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In this video, Mariko shows off the amazing bacon-making process. It requires no splatters of grease, no fanning of smoky fire alarms, no scrubbing of pans coated in bacon fat: She simply places the bacon on a baking sheet, pops it in the oven, and out comes The most civilized bacon you've ever seen. A mound of fresh lettuce, tomato slices, avocado and creamy mayonnaise sandwiched between slices of rustic bread provide a worthy stage for this low-maintenance bacon to really shine. The Queen of Umami adds kimchi for a salty, vinegary, sweet crunch.
Stuffed Peppers
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How long is your lunch break? If you have an hour to spare and aren’t worried about dirtying too many pots and pans, give this epic stuffed peppers a try. Mariko roasts half of the peppers and fills them with a cheese bolognese sauce she makes from scratch.
