Top TikTok Food Trends for 2025: Global Edition — the stuff I can't stop eating#

So, um, TikTok basically owns my appetite right now. Every time I open the app my FYP is throwing me another crispy-saucy-glossy-fingerfood sitch I absolutely need to try. And this year — 2025 — it feels extra global. Like, one second I’m watching a jianbing get folded with that crackly baocui, the next I’m deep in a kunafa croissant rabbit hole, and then someone’s making suya in a tiny apartment pan and I’m drooling on my phone. I know I sound dramatic. But food does that to me, you know? And I’ve been traveling a bit again (bits of Europe, a few weeks in Asia, my forever back-and-forth through NYC), so I got to taste a bunch of the trends in real life. Which kinda makes the videos worse because now I crave them constantly.

The vibe this year: crispy, saucy, handheld, and stupidly photogenic#

You can see it, right? Everything is either layered, smashed, stuffed, or rolled. There’s a lot of hot-cold contrast, a lot of bright acid, and a whole bunch of chili crisp-y textures on top. Appliances-wise, air fryers with steam functions and mini pizza ovens are everywhere in videos — people doing high-hydration dough in tiny kitchens, then blasting it with heat till it blistered like legit street oven. Big flavor, small gear. It’s kinda punk.

Laminated pastry mania: croissant cubes and crookies#

The most obvious scroll-stopper is still the croissant glow-up. Cube croissants, crookies (croissant stuffed with cookie), and those laminated squares with oozy fillings feel even bigger this year. I waited in one of those pre-8am lines in Seoul (Seongsu side street, I swear the coffee tasted better just because the queue was so silly) and grabbed a pistachio cube that had this crunchy-sugary top and a custard swirl inside. Unreal. I used to roll my eyes at the trend, but no, I can’t be a hater anymore. If it’s flaky and square and slightly ridiculous, I’m in. Pro tip if you’re visiting: warm it gently — like 3–4 mins — so the butter wakes up but you don’t go full melt down.

Jianbing & scallion pancake wraps: breakfast of my scrolling dreams#

The way jianbing took over is wild. TikTok loves that moment when the egg hits the griddle and the crispy cracker gets slapped in. I tried one in Queens that layered chili sauce, cilantro, and this funky tos of scallions that just… wow. In London I saw pop-up carts doing scallion pancake wraps with charred beef and pickled veg, kinda jianbing-adjacent but thicker and more chew. Hot tip: ask for extra crunch inside — different stalls use fried wonton or the classic baocui — because that bite is the whole point.

Korean corn dogs & rose tteokbokki still going hard#

I honestly thought the corn dog wave would fade, but nope, it’s thriving. Cheese pulls, a sugar dusting on the outside (don’t knock it), and sometimes potato chunk armor. The new twist I keep seeing is gochujang mayo for dipping, sometimes with yuzu zest for pop. And rose tteokbokki — that creamy, spicy tomato-chili sauce hugging the rice cakes — shows up in like every hotpot vlog. If you make it at home, go with rice cakes that are fresh or properly soaked; otherwise you get that sad chalky bite and you’re like, why did I do this to myself.

West African heat: suya, shito, and atadindin on my plate (and in my DMs)#

Suya spice rub, with all those smoky peanut-y vibes, is everywhere on TikTok. Folks dusting wings, tofu, even roasted carrots. I had a suya skewer from a tiny grill spot in Peckham that straight up ruined my week because nothing else tasted right after it. Shito — that deeply savory Ghanaian chili condiment — keeps sliding into eggs and noodles, and I’m not mad. Atadindin (Nigerian fried pepper sauce) might be the sleeper hit; chunky, oily, spicy, and so good on leftover rice it’s actually unfair. For home cooks: toast your spice blend lightly before rubbing, and rest your meat a minute with a squeeze of lime. Makes a huge difference.

Latin mashups: birria ramen, smash taco burgers, and tlayuda Tuesdays#

Birria ramen is still king of the cozy feeds. Not new new, but the technique got tighter: people strain the consommé, then finish with a little butter or beef fat so it glosses the noodles like a dream. The smash-taco burger thing — pressing ground beef onto tortillas — is messy and fun and just perfect for an air fryer smash when you don’t wanna deal with a pan. And tlayudas are getting their 2025 moment, those giant Oaxacan corn discs slathered with beans, quesillo, lettuce, salsas — mega-crunch, massive bite. I ate one in CDMX a few months ago and swear I heard angels chewing.

SEA cravings: Indomie hacks, martabak manis, and iced coffee that hits back#

Indomie still rules the noodle hack universe — people adding butter and kecap manis to the dry packet and finishing with fried shallots (bawang goreng) for crunch. Zero notes. Martabak manis — that thick honeycomb pancake stuffed with chocolate and cheese — keeps popping up in videos from Jakarta and beyond, and yes, the cheese-chocolate combo is correct, don’t argue with me, just eat it. Iced coffee trends lean sweet, with condensed milk and caramelized sugar syrups. Es kopi susu, but with dialed-in espresso so the sweetness behaves.

India’s snack era: chaat boards, pani puri shots, and the tamarind takeover#

Chaat boards look chaotic in the best way — sev flying, pomegranate seeds, chutneys marbling across dahi. It’s dramatic and TikTok loves drama. Pani puri shots — different flavored waters, from classic tangy to guava-chili — are a party trick I will never get tired of. One stall I hit in Mumbai made a khatta-meetha water that had me standing there like, oh, so this is what happiness tastes like. Tamarind’s everywhere: glazes, margaritas, sticky ribs, chutneys — this is its year, I swear.

Middle East musts: Oman chips paratha and the kunafa croissant glow-up#

If you haven’t seen the Oman chips egg paratha roll videos, welcome to bliss. Crunchy chips smashed into an omelet-paratha situation, hot sauce, a little cheese sometimes — snack food gone deluxe. Kunafa croissants (or kunafa danish, same energy) are pure chaos: crispy kataifi strands, sweet cheese or custard, syrup gloss. I had one in Dubai that dripped syrup onto my wrist and honestly I didn’t even care. Just sticky happiness.

Drink talk: dirty matcha, yuzu fizz, Vietnamese salted-coffee, and fruit-yakult everything#

Dirty matcha (matcha plus a shot of espresso) is everywhere, sometimes layered so the colors stack like a gradient you can brag about. Yuzu fizz — yuzu syrup over soda or tonic with ice — gives that citrus pop that makes rich meals feel lighter. Vietnamese coffee with salted cream is the new old love: sweet, bitter, salty cap, total vibe. And those fruit yakult mixes (mango, strawberry, lychee) refuse to go away, which is fine because they’re nostalgic and cute and easy.

Home-cook upgrades: koji magic, chili-crisp 2.0, and steam-plus-air fry#

Shio koji marinades are the secret handshake this year — people using it to tenderize chicken and fish without making it mushy. Try a tablespoon per pound, overnight, then wipe lightly before searing. Chili crisp got a remix too: scallop-chili crisp, smoked chili crisp, anchovy chili crisp — the little jars look like art at this point. And those steam air fryers? They’re clutch. Dumplings don’t dry out, fish stays silky, and you still get crisp on veg. I did rice paper dumplings three nights in a row and my roommate was both delighted and, frankly, concerned about me.

A few places I loved recently (purely me, not sponsored, calm down internet)#

I stumbled into a jianbing cart outside a subway stop in Queens, one of those no-frills things with a line of regulars, and it was perfect — crunchy middle, scallion sharpness, a swipe of chili that didn’t try too hard. In Seoul I queued too long for croissant cubes because I’m weak, and yeah they earned the hype. London had a tiny grill spot doing suya that was so smoky I thought the walls were perfumed. And a CDMX tlayuda that felt like a pizza’s cool cousin who runs marathons and eats limes for fun. I know the openings are happening constantly everywhere, but honestly I love the little pop-ups that vanish after a few months — they’re the ones that make me go, wow, we’re living in a delicious timeline.

My at-home wins and fails, because me and him went through it#

Wins: suya-spiced roasted carrots with a tahini-yogurt dip that slapped, dirty matcha latte dialed to sanity, Indomie dry noodle with butter and garlic (too easy), and rose tteokbokki with real cream finished by a knob of cheese because I’m a monster. Fails: rice paper dumplings that stuck like velcro to the pan, kunafa croissant attempts using store-bought pastry that tasted like sadness, and a smash-taco burger that shattered because I used the wrong tortilla. Don’t be me. Heat your pan until real hot, use sturdy tortillas, and for laminated pastry… yeah, just buy the good one. Not everything gotta be DIY.

If you wanna cook the trends fast, here’s my messy little cheat sheet#

  • Croissant cube glow-up: rewarm gently, add cold salted butter, pistachio dust if you’re feeling it
  • Jianbing crunch: extra baocui or fried wonton inside, don’t skimp the chili
  • Suya marinade: toast spice, lime finish, rest your meat a minute before slicing
  • Birria ramen: strain consommé, finish with butter or beef fat for shine
  • Indomie hack: butter, kecap manis, fried shallots, done
  • Koji: overnight, wipe before sear, salt carefully (it’s sneaky)

Final food thoughts (before I go make another dirty matcha)#

This year’s global TikTok food trends feel like a loud dinner party, flickering between corners of the world and back again — cubes of croissant, crackly jianbing breakfasts, suya smoke, syrupy kunafa, and noodles that make you late to your next thing. Some stuff’s gonna vanish by next month, sure, but a lot of it is just timeless flavor wearing a new outfit. Eat the stuff that makes you grin, post it if you want, don’t if you don’t, and remember that good food doesn’t need a ring light. If you’re hungry for more stories like this, I’ve been scrolling and sharing little finds over at AllBlogs.in — come hang, we’ll argue about cheese in dessert and probably spill chili oil on our keyboards together.