Food vloggers flocking to Bangladesh

Flood vlogging is a relatively new concept in Bangladesh. The first channel to publicly start food vlogging only emerged in 2016. YouTube, in the recent years, became a go-to for food critics as well as food vloggers to showcase their talent.

Also, Bangladeshi cuisine has taken new heights on the international stage. Bangladeshi-origin chefs like Kishwer Chodhury from Masterchef Australia fame and Nadiya Hussain from The Great British Bake Off fame have risen to fame internationally. They have propelled more and more people to try out Bangladeshi cuisine.

Recently, there has been a surge of international food vloggers landing in Bangladesh for their content.

Khalid Al Ameri was here in Bangladesh during Ramadan. His YouTube video titled ‘Exploring The World's Most Crowded City! (Featuring @Rafsan TheChotoBhai)’ has garnered around 380,000 views. In the video, we see Khalid traveling around Dhaka to taste street food during Ramadan. He was at famous Chawkbazar asking vendors about what foods were among Bangladesh’s specialty for iftar items.

This wasn’t the only video Khalid appeared in Bangladesh. Switching over to Rafsan TheChotobhai’s channel we see another video Khalid features in. Titled ‘Monster Fish Review with @Khalid Al Ameri at MAWA Ghat,’ the video has garnered over 340,000 views.

Next we see Mark Wiens doing collaboration with The Petuk Couple channel. And he doesn’t just have one or two video about Bangladesh in his channel. He has quite a few. Mark’s first video circling Bangladesh titled ‘First Time in Bangladesh!! BD VOLCANO MUSTARD FISH FRY + Street Food in Dhaka!!’ has crossed 4 million views.

Mark Wiens did not only come to Dhaka but he also travelled to lesser known places in Bangladesh. His video surrounding the tribal food of Bangladesh titled ‘TRIBAL FOOD in Bangladesh - Hidden Authentic Chakma Food in Dhaka!!’ has more than 700,000 views on YouTube. He treats his audience to Chittgong’s Mezbani beef in the video ‘Ultimate Bangladeshi Food!! GIANT BEEF MEZBAN in Chittagong, Bangladesh!!’ which has total 1.3 million views.

William Sonbuchner from the Best Ever Food Review Show also landed in Bangladesh to check out Bangladeshi cuisine. In his video ‘Old Dhaka Street Food!!! Most Unique Bangladeshi Food in Dhaka!!’ we see Rafsan TheChotobhai guiding him to street food stalls. They try out different food items like Kacchi Biryani. The duo go out to different parts Dhaka in search of street food. The video has a total 4.4 million views.

Why Bangladesh?

There are many places to wonder. There are historical sites in the capital like Lalbagh Fort and Ahsan Manzil. Also, there are landscapes of scenic beauty like Cox's Bazar, the Sundarbans and the Chittagong Hill Tracts. There are many places to shoot videos for content.

Another reason is Bangladeshi cuisine is still less explored. When we look over to India, we see that their cuisine is part of a broader spectrum. In the early 2000s, many Indian personalities would often invite people from abroad. But that was not the case for Bangladesh until 2016 onwards. A lot of vloggers now want to be part of the first to try Bangladeshi food.

One of the many reasons, Bangladesh is rich in heritage. Largely influenced by Mughal cuisine, food in Bangladesh has a wide array of varieties.

Bangladesh is also culturally diverse. There are many tribal foods of the hilly areas of Bangladesh.

To sum up, Bangladesh has a lot to offer.