This article appears as part of the Food Matters newsletter.

It is common knowledge within The Herald office that I have somewhat of an embarrassing addiction.  

Thankfully, it’s not nicotine, gambling or anything that could cause any serious damage to myself or others.  

Instead, my vice is TikTok and all of the glorious, attention-span-melting video content that goes with it.

This is in part because the algorithm behind the app’s ‘for you page’ has cleverly determined that my personal favourite brand of brain rot is foodie content, with wannabe TV chefs and industry professionals alike trying desperately hard to start their own viral trend.  

Even I can recognise, however, that the recipes which do blow up to become a fleeting pop-culture phenomenon, and inevitably trickle into the menus of restaurants that are keen to cash in on the hype, are utterly unappetising at worst and gimmicky at best.  

The recent craze of butter boards for example, where dairy product is spread thick across a slab of wood and served with chunks of bread for some alarming levels of double dipping, was nothing short of heinous.  

And THAT baked feta pasta using a whole block of oven-nuked cheese would surely reduce any Italian chef to tears.  

But there is one foodie TikTok trend that I am truly willing to get behind.  

“This is my meal, I call it ‘Girl Dinner’”, an audio clip now shared by millions proudly proclaims in videos which show young women fill plates with a glorious mishmash of foods that require minimal effort to prepare.  

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Think a mini smorgasbord of deli ham slices, mozzarella balls, a handful of crisps or a few stray pickles to be enjoyed alone and preferably while parked in front of the TV.  

I had seen some discussion of this online, none other than Nigella Lawson compared the craze to a ‘picky tea’, which households across the country are already familiar with.  

She was close, but no cigar.  

The unique joy in Girl Dinners, which soon evolved to include everything from mountains of pesto pasta to a single tortilla wrap zapped in the microwave with orange cheese, is the way they've shown there is no shame in catering to our most basic cravings.  

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It’s messy, often not nutritionally balanced, and a welcome step away from the barrage of picture-perfect foodie influencer content we’re fed on social media.  

As trends go? I’m all for celebrating the weird and wonderful choices usually only made when no one is looking.  

If ever there was a chef who has championed serving just whatever the hell you feel like for dinner, it is surely Andy Neilson of Glasgow’s Bloc+.  

With a menu famously featuring ramen noodle-topped hot dogs and deep-fried sticky toffee pudding, he came was victorious when completing with a group of the city’s finest restaurant teams on Come Dine With Me: The Professionals last year.  

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This week, I caught up with Andy after learning that he has now said goodbye to the Bath Street bar and restaurant after two years in charge of its kitchen.   

You can find our full interview, in which he tells us what’s next for his career and looks back on some of his strangest creations at Bloc+ on The Herald website tomorrow.  

Until then, I look forward to seeing more of the world’s unashamedly odd Girl Dinners on TikTok, and promise that I really will get off the app soon.