If you’re like me, a millennial who loves shopping at farmers markets, sipping oat milk lattes, and sipping on fashion-forward basics, your #ForYou page is probably already filled with videos of the 29-year-old Bay Area native— Lifestyle influencer Emily Mariko. Specifically, her current signature work-from-home lunch: salmon rice bowl, which is both a clever way to deal with leftovers and a viral sensation.
The video with the hashtag #SalmonRiceBowl has been viewed more than 2.5 million times on the app, with people sharing their thoughts on the remaining hacks. The video tagged #EmilyMariko has over 4 million views, with people waxing poetic about how she #impacted them. Mariko started with 70,000 TikTok followers in September and now has more than 1.5 million followers — thanks in large part to the salmon bowl, according to Embedded, a newsletter about internet culture.
Salmon rice bowl is a simple concept elevated to an art form. You take your cooked salmon out of the refrigerator - maybe you ate it last night, maybe not! - Then use a fork to cut it into small pieces at the bottom of the bowl. Then, you spoon a big spoonful of the remaining rice on top. Now, here's the key, you put an ice cube on top of the rice, cover it with a piece of parchment paper, and then microwave the dish. The ice won't melt(!) but will steam the rice properly to get that perfect, just-cooked consistency. Place the soy sauce, Kewpie mayonnaise, and Sriracha sauce in a bowl and mix everything together. From there, you can decorate the bowl with avocado, pickles, or other delicious accessories. Kicker? To eat this dish, place a piece of dried seaweed over the area of the salmon-rice mixture you want to eat, and then use chopsticks to sandwich the delicious nori between the nori. result? The perfect crunchy, salty, and spicy work-from-home lunch.
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People on the app are obsessed with the bowl, making their own stovetop versions, swapping out tuna for salmon or adding furikake seasoning to jazz it up. The fact that ice doesn't melt in the microwave also causes a lot of headaches for many users. (Some cursory googling suggests this has to do with the way hydrogen bonds in ice are structured? I don't know.)
If you came to Mariko's page to buy salmon rice bowl, you might want to stick around and watch the rest of her videos. Before last week, I would occasionally see Mariko’s TikToks—quick ASMR-esque clips of Mariko quietly prepping her farmers’ market harvest for next week and making delicious-looking egg sandwiches—but my #ForYou page kept her content is inevitable. She also posts videos about working out (in activewear, of course), home decor, decluttering and organizing, and other mainstays of aspirational lifestyle content that's just so enjoyable to watch. Even if you're not in the market for more "That Girl" style influencers, the Salmon Rice Bowl is enough to wow you.
