2021’s First Meme? This Maltese Woman’s Experimental Recipes Are Entertaining (And Confusing) The Nation
How do you manage to break through thousands of foodie channels and make sure your recipes become the stuff of legend? Well, one Maltese woman seems to be steadily achieving that by boldly going where no chef has gone before.
It all started on 13th December 2020, when a video simply titled “Baked Rice” showed up on YouTube courtesy of the account Doris & Joel’s Kitchen.
In the short, two-and-a-half-minute video which would prove to be the blueprint for future uploads, a cheerful Doris presents the finished product before getting into the recipe. And it’s here that we catch the first glimpse of why these videos are currently being circulated all over social media.
You see, the dishes coming out of Doris & Joel’s Kitchen are all very… unique.
Whether it’s because of the ingredients being used or the methods she decides to take, Doris seems to not be scared of defying all culinary traditions. And I mean all of them.
Be it a fruit kebab salad or an apple berries omelette – or even tacos salmone al tonno – Doris (and Joel, who quite frankly deserves some screentime) is always ready and proud to present her latest experimental creation.
And from the interesting choice of transitions to the instantly recognisable stock music, this stuff is on its own level.
With her trusty hot-plate, “normal eggs” and a couple of frozen veggies, there’s no recipe Doris won’t try, and she even uploads more than once a day. In fact, in the 26 days since the first video was uploaded, Doris & Joel have uploaded 54 videos. By the time this article was written, in fact, three more videos had shown up.
Within days, Doris & Joel’s videos went from getting a couple of dozen views to hundreds. Some have even gone beyond that, with ‘One Minute Platter’ sitting at the top of the channel’s foodchain.
OK, so where do we begin with this one?
As the name implies, this recipe isn’t really complicated… probably because it promises to be ready in 60 seconds.
All you need is nuts, cheese and olives.
Cut the cheese in four pieces, “assemble the platter” by putting everything on a separate plate, aaaand you’re done. Voilà; 3,875 views and counting.
Of course, this is Malta we’re talking about, where nothing lives in a vacuum for too long.
First, a couple of the recipe-duo’s links started being shared on messaging threads around the island.
Within days, however, as the views climbed, memes started cropping up from all angles, with some even going as far as to compare Doris’ unique creations to F Living’s eccentric dishes.
Many are entertained. Some are confused. And others still are offended.