2024 was the 'Year of the Eat-fluencer,' as online influencers have revived old culinary favourites and taken ordinary dishes to new and viral fame, according to Line Man, a food delivery platform in Thailand.
Top viral dishes include cheese tea, banana cake, braised eggs, Thai egg cakes, leg of pork with rice and chicken rice, which saw order volumes rise throughout the year.
The platform summed up the year based on 10 million users and more than 500,000 restaurants.
According to the platform, social media and its influencers have played a major role in creating food phenomena. One of these was “cheese tea,” which skyrocketed in popularity, with orders on Line Man increasing sevenfold.
Another viral food was banana cake, sparked by the LINE MAN-only shop Bonnana, owned by popular food influencer Bew Varaporn.
This trend inspired over 2,000 restaurants to add banana cake to their menus, driving a 115% increase in orders across the country.
Thai egg cake, a childhood treat, made a return with its butter-stuffed variation originating in Songkhla province. Orders for this dessert grew by 50%.
Leg of pork with rice also enjoyed a surge in popularity, fuelled by a Moo Deng (the pigmy hippo) incident that led Thai fans to associate a famous celebrity moment with the dish.
This connection resulted in a 50% spike in searches on LINE MAN, surpassing even consistently popular items like shabu and sushi.
