Some men just want to watch the world burn. Or put more accurately, some men just want to cook shrimp and mashed potatoes inside airplane bathrooms.
At this point, it’s hard to imagine the experience of air travel getting any worse, especially post-pandemic. But one man is clearly up for the task after filming himself cooking the aforementioned combo using batteries, then turning the horror show into a soon-to-be-everywhere video on TikTok.
“Well, I got a terrible idea,” TikTok user Barfly7777 says in the opening moments of the clip in question. “It’s a terrible idea! I’m a little nervous. The stuff I got packed definitely looks like a bomb.”
From there, Barfly guides viewers through the process of making what he's dubbed "mile high bathroom garlic shrimp and mash." In the caption, he got a little further into the weeds with regards to his makeshift kitchen.
“With 2 6v batteries wired in series to an immersion beverage heater, one is able to get water scalding hot quickly,” Barfly, who's known for similar food hacks on the platform, explained. “Raw shrimp will only need a few minutes. Adding instant mash to the shrimp water adds some extra flavor. Garlic butter makes everything go better.”
To be fair, the last time I had the forced misfortune of eating airplane food, I struggled tremendously with identifying what, exactly, was the intended shape and taste of the mildly warmed-up goop I consumed as I sleeplessly watched a four-hour RoboCop documentary. The doc was great, of course. The food? Well, I wouldn't call it "food," exactly. But whatever you want to call it, it put up such a fight against edibility that one almost has to admire it.
All that to say, welcome to the era of nihilism, where we all cook in tiny bathrooms and then get written about by major pop culture publications.
Happy holidays, everyone.
