Decoding the 'girl dinner' trend

The viral girl dinner trend has been making the rounds on social media for a while now. But what is this seemingly gendered meal? Sunday mid-day explores

A few months back, a food trend called the girl dinner went viral on Instagram reels and TikTok. For the bewildered (are we assigning gender to meals now?), a girl dinner—as defined by the urban dictionary—is “a dinner that consists of many different kinds of small appetisers or snacks rather than just one entrée.” It is the kind of hastily put-together dishes you make when you can’t be bothered to dedicate time and energy to creating a whole meal. Scroll through the hashtag #girldinner on Insta and you’ll see drool-worthy content by young women—spicy chill oil noodles, pesto salads, and charcuterie boards. There’s even a Reels song called Girl Dinner by influencer Brookie Barry. 

The original girl dinner is believed to have been started by influencer Olivia Maher, in response to a post about people consuming cheese and bread in medieval times. Maher reportedly created a reaction video saying “But that’s my dinner!” and the rest, as they say, is digital content. Sunaina Basu, the founder of   founder of Rafiki Marketing and food blogging platform Bee Town Bites, says, “I saw an influencer put together really simple but delicious meals with whatever was available in her fridge, which she called girl dinners. The idea was that she wasn’t having a great week, so these dinners uplifted her mood.”

What may seem like a current trend is something many like Basu have been nonchalantly doing for a while. “Food makes a big difference to my mood,” she says. “I mostly make one-pot meals or Asian dishes like sesame chicken bowls, or different versions of pasta, using the ingredients I find in my fridge. It’s being creative with leftovers. My go-to girl dinner is a combination of lettuce, sesame oil, chicken, veggies, and rice. It’s my simple home version of Japanese Donburi rice bowls, and tastes very flavourful and fulfilling. I also find myself using eggs and veggies a lot in my dinners now, one of my favourites is my Asian egg and mushroom sandwich.”

Girl dinners are just one part of the ‘girl’ influencer content. Like #girlmath, which is a whole other universe of women creating goofy versions of how things add up. Another trend is lazy girl breakfasts—girl dinners but in breakfast form. However, it’s not just restricted to women, of course, as IT account manager Abhijeet Kashyap would attest. The Juhu resident came across the trend on social media a while back and was intrigued. “There was an arrangement of snacks and quick bites, such as strawberries, which looked very weird to me—how can you have snacks and fruits at the same time?” he says. “But then I started trying it out for myself and realised that it was quite convenient, something I had already been doing in my own way.”

While girl dinners are a pick-me-up for Basu, they’re a quick fix for Kashyap. “I was struggling with my office work timings when I came across the trend,” he recalls. “I had been skipping dinner as I would reach home at 9.30 pm. I didn’t have the energy to cook on weekdays, so I started eating Monaco biscuits, a childhood favourite, with black coffee, to keep hunger pangs at bay.” “Later on, I started having issues with sleep, so I switched to fruit bowls,” he says. “I throw together strawberries, grapes, and bananas. Or else, dry fruits such as cashews, dates, and sweetened cranberries, with milk.”

In the West, girl dinners manifest as specially curated snacks, put together to form appetising plates. But closer to home, where starters, not charcuterie boards, are preferred, girl dinners are more as comfort foods. “I see the trend as putting together effortless meals,” says Chandreyi Bandyopadhyay, a freelance writer based in Nagpur. “I use leftover rotis and caramelise them, or bread poha, or an egg bhurji with ketchup and sautéed onions for a twist. Or if there’s rice left over, I mix it up with onions, potatoes or tomatoes.”

Abhijeet Kashyap and Chandreyi Bandyopadhyay

While girl dinners are viewed as harmless little snacks and comfort foods, there’s a darker take as well. Some netizens view it as a marketing gimmick intended to promote unhealthy snacking; to others, it is a capitalist tool that seeks to instil harmful consumption patterns among young women. But for most women, it’s just a way to eat and get through their day. As one influencer rather flamboyantly expresses, “Girl dinner is not about eating less. It is about a woman’s extraordinary ability to make do with what we have, while at the same time honouring cravings and nourishing our bodies.” A mouthful, indeed.

But Bandyopadhyay’s views are different. “I rarely cook just for myself, as I live with my partner. He takes a share of the effort too, but for Gen Z perhaps, cooking has a gendered perspective. Women no longer want to be the only ones who do it. However, I feel that each is responsible for their own. You cook for yourself if you need to.” In that sense, girl dinners, which are advertised as ‘meals for one’, are a tiny act of rebellion against the way food has traditionally been gendered.

Kashyap, on the other hand, sees girl dinners as a potential lifestyle trend that people might adopt. “The purpose is not to just follow the trend but adopting a lifestyle based on it,” is his theory. “I think this can become a lifestyle if it saves time or makes people feel good–it would be interesting if food brands picked up on this and started making curated girl dinner packs.”

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!