Girl Dinner

Words by Su Ertekin-Taner

I take a resident cheddar block out of the fridge and try my best to cut the hunk into small cubes— I am partial to the shape. I adorn a now cheddar-filled plate with pretzel crisps; I fashion hearts out of my pretzels that will frame the cheese cubes. I am considering the category of dip now, hoping for a variety of texture. I decide on plain hummus. For a splash of something fresh and bright, I cut some cucumbers and tomatoes. 

Both out of laziness and desire for a quick indulgence, I’ve thrown (almost literally too) this plate of cravings together for the night. The items only barely belong together (i.e., I don’t usually see cucumber and cheddar on the same plate) and said belonging can be mostly attributed to proximity. This meal is nonsensical and engaging. I have made my “girl dinner.”

“Girl dinner,” a TikTok trend started by creator Olivia Maher, invites TikTok creators to share their ideal plate of uniquely curated and, for the most part, unprepared and uncooked snacks or grub. The dinners sometimes consist of compatible components, the plate taking on the thoughtful unity of a charcuterie board. Other times, these creators revel in the mismatched: @elevateyourboutique, for example, arranges a girl dinner of a cheese stick, strawberries and boiled eggs, while @swagatronforever2.0 takes a different approach to mismatching, deciding on a combination of mac and cheese, pork and beans, a salad of lettuce dressed with vinegar, hot fries, a Slim Jim, a pickle and two plums for the night. 

As with most TikTok fads, the trend which has amassed hundreds of millions of views on TikTok has been cause for social media and dietician skepticism. Girl dinner adversaries argue that public posting of one’s girl dinner not only provides an affirmative space for content creators with disordered eating but also promotes a sparse style of eating for one of the largest demographics on the app: adolescent girls. 

These concerns are not unfounded. Indeed, by the nature of the TikTok algorithm, those plates that are more plate than food pop up every once in a while under the hashtag #girldinner for users that prefer and search for girl dinner-related content. More common and equally as dangerous is the satirical girl dinner of a Redbull and vape or a cigarette and tea. Dieticians and psychologists alike worry that some users might overlook the satire of the content, instead interpreting this nicotine rich, calorie deficient diet as acceptable because it is branded under a popular trend.

But girl dinner backers argue that this view of girl dinner neglects the original intent of the trend. Girl dinner encourages satiation in a playful, easy, and adjustable way. In this way, girl dinner makes eating fun. Los Angeles-based micro-influencer Olivia Maher said this on the “Today” show, “What matters is the feeling it [girl dinner] evokes. Giddiness often goes along with it because it’s what you want. It satisfies you.”

Much like Maher, I make girl dinner to feel giddy. I construct modified charcuterie boards, for example, to romanticize an otherwise standard TV binging session. My various writing duties also seem more pleasurable with a bit of cheese and peanuts on the side. I feel as fashionable and as curated as the plate next to my computer. Other times, I make a girl dinner to just celebrate the simple. I want to taste and understand ingredients as they are, not as a fraction of a whole meal. 

Yet girl dinner does not only represent desire for temporary delight for me. It is a truth of living and eating. While girl dinner describes the mismatched plate I’ve made today, my curating (of sorts) existed long before the trend. When long work nights limited dinner prepping and eating time, I turned to girl dinner. The mishmash of the week’s leftovers — that now constitutes girl dinner — was always a necessary truth of end-of-the-week dining. 

Of course, when this tapa-tization occurs everyday for every meal, health concerns may arise especially if the chef skimps on proteins, fruits and veggies. But implicit in the understanding of girl dinner is that the trend offers a break from the norm of cooking and the collateral dishwashing; it’s an indulgence meant for special occasions like the onset of summer — when the temperature increase discourages cooking — or the completion of an exhausting day. 

So when the cacophonous chorus of the phrase “girl dinner” pops up on your social media, enjoy the sound that accompanies the trend. The jingle signals a new zeitgeist: one of simplicity, lower exertion and most importantly, giddiness. This triad is one I can get behind.