The Top 10 Times the Internet Lost Its Mind in 2019
The food internet can be the best of places and it can be the worst of places. It can delight you with brilliant hacks to make everyday tasks easier, it can help you get more healthful meals on the table faster, and it can introduce you to new foods or recipes you might never have thought of on your own.
But it can also frighten you with stories of what other people do to their food or how they treat the people who do (or don’t) cook it for them. Most of these extra-special stories of the times the internet lost its mind this year even manage to both thrill and scare in one fell swoop. Strap in — we’re hitting the top 10 moments in 2019.
1. That time when everyone was awed by the Indian bread omelet video.
When a mesmerizing video of a street vendor preparing an Indian-style egg omelet jumped from Indian social media to American, it went totally viral. The common street food gets flipped and folded, resulting in a neat little breakfast sandwich to go at the end. It turns out to be both fun to make and delicious, so this was definitely one of the biggest winners in the world of viral cooking videos.
Read more: I Made the Indian-Style “Bread Omelet” the Internet Went Nuts Over. Here’s How It Went.
2. That time when some dude got mad at his wife for not making him a vegetarian meal when she was sick.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, the biggest loser might have been the guy who received a resounding “yes!” when he asked the title question of Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole” forum. You see, this poor man had been struggling because his wife was in too much pain from her endometriosis to cater to his daily needs. So, in the court of the internet, he accused his sick wife of cheating him out of a nice meal because she wanted to make herself some comfort food that didn’t fit into his vegetarian lifestyle. **Gavel bang** case — and husband — dismissed.
Read more: Man Gets Mad at Wife for Not Making Him a Vegetarian Meal When She’s Sick, Internet Responds Accordingly
3. That time someone made an egg loaf in their Instant Pot.
Another Reddit gem — this one from the hilariously-named DiWHY — involved a cook working to solve the issue of having to peel hard-boiled eggs. They solved it by using an Instant Pot and a well-greased Jello mold to create what is described as an “egg loaf.” The disturbing photo was posted and sides were chosen: People declared it either a brilliant way to speed up egg-salad sandwiches or a crime against eggs, and the internet went to battle.
Read more: The Internet Can’t Decide Whether This Hard-Boiled Egg Instant Pot Hack Is Brilliant or Terrifying
4. That time when some dude asked his neighbor to cook for him.
Not content to let the sick-wife guy take the culinary dud of the year award, this fellow didn’t understand why his neighbor — whose name he has not bothered to learn — wasn’t thrilled with his requests for her to be his in-house chef. The ire of the world wide web wafted up like the smells of her delicious cooking, but this one has a happy ending: The poster read and took the responses to heart. He’s since apologized and even learned her name.
Read more: Man Asks Random Neighbor to Cook Him Food for Cash, the Internet Reacts Accordingly
5. When people had to decide which coffee cup was a window into their soul.
Thanks to the privacy afforded by cups and their tops, how one takes their coffee is generally a personal matter. But when this chart of coffee colors — based on the amount of milk or cream added — hit Instagram, the world learned of the monsters who chose option A1, which turned out to be just a full cup of creamer. That’s not going to get anyone to the bus stop on time, not mention through the workday.
Read more: This Coffee Chart Is Dividing the Internet
6. That time when the internet learned how bagels are sliced in St. Louis.
When a Tweet demonstrated that they slice bagels a little differently in St. Louis, all hell broke loose. The photo showed bagels sliced vertically, like a loaf of bread. To many, this was a blatant offense to really anyone who had ever loved a bagel. It destroyed the essence of what set a bagel apart from toast — that lovely, shiny exterior and the seeds or toppings on the outside — and left an ordinary bread product. Others argued that it was a good idea, increasing the spreadable surface for cream cheese. Those people were, of course, wrong.
Read more: The Internet Is Divided Over This Controversial St. Louis Bagel Slicing Method
7. That time when everyone freaked out over this pineapple cutting method.
What if you could pull off pieces of pineapple straight from the fruit and pop them in your mouth like grapes? Seems dreamy, since it’s an annoying fruit to cut, but like so many viral videos (especially, it seems, in the genre of fruit or vegetable preparation), there was more than could be seen by the naked eye in this impressive pineapple video. It turns out, as a few testers discovered, this really only works with a specific type of pineapple at a certain stage of ripeness. So, as incredibly fun to watch as the video is, keep your fingernails intact and keep cutting your pineapple the old-fashioned way for now, please.
Read more: The Internet Lost Its Mind Over This Pineapple Trick
8. That time when we learned how to unclog a salt shaker.
The term “hack” is thrown around a lot, but this video’s trick to getting pepper shakers to work through the clogs is the epitome of the term: using standard objects in a way they were not designed to as a workaround for a common problem. The problem, in this case, being when you shake those little things and no salt or pepper come out. As the video shows, you can rub the bottom of the salt against the pepper and it will suddenly start showering the spice down on your food — it turns out the vibrations from the ridges on the bottom of the glass release it. Spice your food and look brilliant doing it? That’s everything the internet ever wanted.
Read more: This Salt and Pepper Shaker Trick Is Blowing Up the Internet
9. That time when someone posted a video about the fastest way to cut garlic.
Sometimes a viral video is wishful thinking — and anybody who has ever had to peel garlic really wished that this video’s trick worked. Or, to be clear, worked as well and easily as the video showed. Although the original makes it seem like you can just slip a knife into each clove and twist every clove out, neatly and quickly, after the internet picked its collective jaw off the floor, testers found this was more skill than hack. Some testers found that with a little work and practice they could figure it out, while others said it didn’t really work at all. Then there were the people who managed to actually injure themselves attempting this, which was a not-small group. Imitate with care!
Read more: This Mind-Blowing Hack for Peeling Garlic Might Change Your Life
10. That time when someone created a gender reveal lasagna.
Gender reveal mania was everywhere this year, sometimes even ending in tragedy. But when it came to edible versions, no cake or candy held a candle to the spectacle of the gender reveal lasagna. Under layers of cheese and pasta, a caterer offered to help you present the supposed gender of your unborn offspring in the form of pink or blue filling in the lasagna. This one earned plenty of points for creativity, but absolutely none for making a food that is remotely appealing.
Read more: The Internet Loses Its Collective Mind Over Gender Reveal Lasagna