Jar of murky Mississippi River water used by father-son duo in recipe, TikTok shows
Chicken and pineapple, check. Three teaspoons of cornstarch, check. A jar of cloudy water from the Mississippi River.
Wait, what?
TikTok is an oasis for culinary enthusiasts and experimentalists, including Wayne Shen, whose recipes often include quirky ingredients, like water from the Mississippi River.
Some viewers might find Shen’s recipes hard to swallow, but one father-son duo was determined to try one for themselves — Mississippi River water included.
@dougweaverart #stitch with @Wayne Shen We really used water from the mighty Mississippi! #waterfrommississippiriver #mississippiriver #chinesefood #cookin ♬ original sound - dougweaverart
Doug Weaver and his son, who live in St. Louis, Missouri, hopped in the car and made a trip down to the Mississippi near the Gateway Arch. In Weaver’s TikTok @dougweaverart, his son collects a jar full of murky Mississippi River water for the family to take home and start their recipe — following Shen’s instructions to a tee.
Weaver assured his viewers that they boiled the water thoroughly before cooking with it.
The family collected the water on June 30 for the recipe, but the process wasn’t entirely new for Weaver, he told FOX2. He and his wife had worked as Peace Corps volunteers in Rwanda for two years, Weaver said.
“Our water was questionable. So we got really used to boiling our water and filtering and making our own drinking water,” Weaver told FOX2. “So it’s not really something that’s that bizarre to me.”
One viewer asked if there was any taste difference using the river water, and Weaver replied that he wasn’t sure, but the sweet and sour chicken dish tasted good.
Shen’s abundance of strange recipes — calling for Mississippi River water, stirring dishes with specific hands and other peculiar instructions — have garnered millions of likes, and many viewers crack jokes about the recipes.
“Mississippi River will run dry if I keep making these recipes,” someone joked.
@foodiechina888 Sweet and sour meat with pineapple recipe in China #recipe #cooking #chinesefood #foodtiktok #sweetandsour ♬ Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) - Kate Bush
“I definitely think the Mississippi River water adds a lot of texture to this dish,” another viewer commented.
Jokes aside, the National Park Service warns the public that stretches of the Mississippi River exceed water quality standards for mercury, bacteria, sediment and other contaminants which can make the water dangerous for fishing, swimming and drinking.
The next time the father-son duo try out the dish in the kitchen, Weaver told FOX2 they would tweak the process.
“It was good! I might change it a little bit next time I make it,” Weaver told FOX2. “I’ll use just normal water.”
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