Over my month-long quarantine, I spent hours upon hours on TikTok. Due to my endless scrolling, I discovered a few recipes that piqued my interest. So I decided to try the ones that interested me the most.

The first recipe that I decided to attempt was boba pearls. I was inspired by @emilyfigueroa. However, I felt I needed a more written-out recipe and steps.

I went online and I found a recipe by Elaine on China Sichuan Food. She used the same ingredients as Emily, but the steps of cooking were slightly different. 

I am not skilled in the kitchen whatsoever, so some of the steps intimidated me. For example, the recipe starts with cooking sugar down, which I have never done before.

Before cooking, each individual pearl had to be rolled out. This was by far the longest step. 

I attempted this recipe twice. My first time cooking, I halved the recipe and boiled the boba pearls in a small pot for 30 minutes. The second time, I did a full batch and boiled it in a large pot for around 45 minutes. 

Both times, the pearls, depending on size, were not cooked all the way through.

My overall thought on this recipe is that it’s a fun idea. Some ingredients are easily accessible (I just happened to have them); however, it takes a long time to cook, and results can vary. 

If you are skilled in the kitchen and know how to properly follow a recipe and have the patience to do so, this could be the recipe for you. 

Unfortunately, if I were to give it a rating out of ten, it’d get a 5. There are easier and faster ways to get boba. 

The second recipe that I attempted making was a banana-based brownie that I saw @hannah_bero make.

The ingredients were general items that you would have around your house, so I decided to give it a shot.

This recipe took a lot less time than the previous one as it probably took a good 25 minutes for everything to be mixed and baked.

In my family, dessert comes after dinner, but I made these at 10 a.m. I had a while to wait, but I finally got to try them.

Now, this is where I became very disappointed. The brownies did not taste like brownies at all. They tasted like mushy, half-baked bananas. None of the other flavors came through and it was overall not a good brownie.

My brother, however, commented that they were better if you mixed them with ice cream. If I were to rate these brownies, I’d give them a 4/10. 

My third and final recipe that I attempted was the famous “TikTok” pasta that’s made with feta cheese and tomatoes.

This recipe was easy to make and the ingredients are pretty accessible if you are not me. Because I do not eat dairy, I had to substitute the feta with a vegan alternative.

Overall, the pasta did not take much work. 

The only downfall of my attempt was the use of the vegan feta. It could have been the cheese itself, or the lack of. 

Either one of the two ingredients held a lot of water. So instead of making a creamy sauce, it was very thin and was more soupy than saucy.

However, by mixing the pasta with the sauce I couldn’t tell the difference. 

In my mom’s opinion, “I didn’t think it was that bad.”

In the end, this was the best dish out of all three. I would rate it a 7 out of 10 just because I do think that “veganizing” made it lose some of the appeal. 

Altogether, these recipes were simple to understand and some were better than others. I blame myself for some of the short fallings as I am not a skilled chef who has an abundance of patience in the kitchen.

TikTok is a place where people can share and try new things. So trying these recipes out of curiosity is definitely worth it, but don’t expect it to be great just because you saw it in a video.