Are Parents Really Making These Trendy Isolation Foods? An Isolation Debate

We’re on week eight or 200, it doesn’t really matter anymore.

We’ve been inside for a long time.

For those who can, this means a lot of inspirational research is happening in places like Bon Appetit, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook groups and podcasts.

Truly, inspiration abounds — like I’m sure cruising the Canadian Tire website these days is “inspiring.”

Here's an essay on pandemic privilege that doesn't condemn your lifestyle — read it here.

And all those cute art projects in people’s windows surely inspire me to smile. And don’t even get me started on the chalk message I cried at on my solo walk this weekend — it simply read “you are loved” in a childlike scrawl. 

But in looking for creative solutions to this very modern predicament, some really time-consuming trends have emerged.

I’d hazard a guess to say maybe one in a million parents are actually doing these things, but from what I’m reading, they are all great big trends.

So, let’s talk about them.

Pancake Cereal

Have you heard of pancake cereal? Here’s the long and the short (stack) of it. You take some kind of batter vessel and you create about 30 or more very tiny pancakes from your run-of-the-mill pancake mix.

Then, as if the process of making so many tiny pancakes and flipping them weren’t enough, you then take those tiny flapjacks and baste them in melted butter.

Watching this video, I can’t think of anything but how terrible mine would turn out. They would no doubt not separate from the pan in such a tidy manner, and “basting” in melted butter would — for me, I’m sure of it — result in one pancake getting completely saturated in all the butter.

By the end, it would be a lot of cooked pancake stuck to a bunch of different cooking surfaces.

Oh, and there’s no milk. Just a pat of butter and a lot of maple syrup. So, is it cereal? It depends on who you ask.

I mean, I'm not personally that concerned about it being called cereal. Why? Because I eat dry cereal all the time. Bit of a cereal boy. I love stale Honeycomb cereal without milk, and I can't explain why. If you know, you know.

What I am concerned about is the time it takes to meticulously place evenly cooked, perfectly round tiny pancakes in a bowl to resemble cereal. Even with “so much time,” it feels a bit extra. But you do you, Karen!

Also, honey, that’s a lot of butter for me. And I'm a little piggy.

Will parents make this? I'd guess a handful of parents, tops. 

Dalgona Coffee

This is called a lot of things from Greek frappé to TikTok and Dalgona coffee.

Basically, you take instant coffee, granulated sugar and water, and then froth the mixture until it forms stiff peaks — like a meringue. Then you add it to your milk or dairy-free milk of choice over ice (or no ice, which sounds wild to me).