Man Who Lives In Hotels Causes Uproar With His 'Hotel Bathroom Baby Back Ribs' Recipe, But Others Are Thanking Him
Bathroom baby back ribs? Toilet-tank sous vide steak? Bon appetit!
TikTok One man has taken what would normally be an unfortunate situation and turned it around — and it's got some people angry, some applauding, and pretty much everyone slack-jawed.
In case you haven't heard, the U.S. is in the midst of a housing crisis. And for many people in certain financial situations, that necessitates a bit of ingenuity when it comes to living arrangements and creature comforts.
A man on TikTok has people online in shock with his recipe for 'bathroom baby back ribs' — ribs he cooks in a hotel bathroom.
TikToker Barfly, known as @barfly7777 on the app, spends a lot of time in hotels — most of his time, in fact. As anyone who's ever done a stint of hotel living for any reason will tell you, you have to get creative to live this way comfortably.
For Barfly, this means coming up with ways to cook elaborate meals in a hotel bathroom, and the results — like his viral "bathroom baby back ribs" — are truly astonishing.
What goes down in his video is sort of like watching a regular old cooking tutorial... except there's a toilet in the background. Slapping a full rack of ribs on the hotel bathroom countertop, Barfly strips the meat of its membrane and flops it into the sink, which instantly takes on a sort of gruesomeness that calls to mind, say, a murder scene, as he massages the meat with a delicious Char Siu rub.
Now, we know what you're thinking — how on Earth is he going to cook ribs in a hotel bathroom? You will simply never guess, but as a hint, consider what heat-making objects exist in a hotel room. That's right, a hair dryer!
So, what does Barfly do? He places the meat inside a pillowcase, slaps it onto the hotel room's ironing board, sticks the hair dryer into the pillowcase for seven hours — and voila! He even bastes the meat with honey and adds corn on the cob and a potato halfway through to complete the meal.
Photo: TikTok
'Bathroom baby back ribs' are just one of Barfly's many ingenious hotel cooking recipes — he makes everything from sous vide steak to rotisserie chicken.
Not much is known about @barfly7777's life, but it seems like he prefers to keep it that way. Commenters have come up with several theories for why he's spent so much time in hotel rooms that he has such a finely honed repertoire of hotel cooking recipes.
Some think he might be one of the many oil and gas pipeline workers who live full-time in hotels, especially as real estate prices in places where the American petroleum industry is centered, like the Dakotas, have skyrocketed in recent years to price levels that used to be only seen on the coasts. Not that housing is any more affordable in the rest of America, of course.
Others have posited that he might be an overland trucker, and several assume Barfly — especially since he occasionally posts videos from what looks to be a campsite, or maybe even a tent city — is simply a nomad.
For his part, Barfly plays things close to the chest, though he did tell a bunch of inquisitive commenters that he is a "traveling health inspector," which is either a fascinating detail or a hilarious joke about the messes he makes in hotels. Maybe both.
Photo: TikTok
Whatever the case, his hotel life has made him quite possibly America's foremost hotel chef. He's got a recipe for everything from a rotisserie chicken — made with a portable rotisserie and a portable stove burner — to sous vide filet mignon cooked in the hotel toilet tank. Yes, in the toilet tank. (But don't worry, it's vacuum sealed.)
Photo: TikTok
Many people are repulsed and angered by Barfly's hotel cooking recipes, but others have thanked him for helping them deal with their own long-term lives in hotels.
As you might guess, Barfly's recipes have drawn a mixed response — many people are deeply grossed out. "My food can’t even touch bathroom air," one man wrote, while another commenter said, "This makes me never want to stay anywhere but home."
For others, the gross-out factor was all part of the appeal. As one viewer quipped, "I hate your videos so much. Please continue making them forever. I’ll watch them all."
Others were infuriated by the mess he makes with each meal. One person sniped, "You know someone else has to use that room when you check out," and several accused him of having "no respect for the housekeeping people." Even his cooking equipment stoked some people's ire as they realized he sometimes cooks with a pricey hex-clad pan.
But others regularly thank Barfly for teaching them how to cook in less-than-ideal circumstances. "Your recipes have helped me during my time at college. So thank you!" wrote one student. Another person who practically lives in hotels due to his job thanked Barfly for saving him from subsisting entirely on microwaved ramen noodles.
But you don't have to be hotel-bound or unhoused to benefit from Barfly's methods. In these trying times, we're all looking for ways to cut costs, and as Barfly put it in the comments of a video in which he made a whole pizza from scratch on the bathroom counter, "Walmart has a single burner hot plate for $14. Buy that and a pan with a lid and u can cook 90% of everything."
This is probably part of why one commenter begged him to compile his methods for the masses. "Dearest Barfly," the commenter wrote, "I politely demand that you write a book containing all of the knowledge you have acquired in life!"
If any publishing houses are reading this, this might be your next best-seller. You can thank us later — perhaps over a plate of bathroom baby back ribs?
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.