‘Kub Balo Mama, Kub Balo’

His name is Trevor James but you can call him ‘Jhanduda’ also. Just like the character of ‘Jhanduda’ from Syed Mujtaba Ali’s short story ‘Rosogolla’, James spends most of his time in hotels. This food blogger of Canadian descent basically goes around the world tasting street food.

The name of his YouTube channel is ‘The Food Ranger’ and that has 5.5 million subscribers. In short, James describes himself succinctly on his YouTube channel: “I don’t eat to live, I live to eat.”

Trevor came to Bangladesh in 2019. Starting from 'kachkola bhorta' (mashed green bananas) of Dhaka University area to Chattogram’s 'mezbani beef', he tasted a range of local food roaming around the streets of Dhaka and Chattogram.

He gave them ratings also. So, how many marks did he give the different dishes on a scale of 10? Let’s check it out:

Kachkola bhorta: 9/10

Mama halim: 9.2/10

Star Kabab’s mutton liver: 5.8/10

Mustakim’s chaap: 8/10

Koral fish fry of Neela Market: 9.5/10

However, there’s no need to look at the numbers to understand how much a food item appealed to James. Its the ‘mmm’ sound he makes while closing his eyes and placing a bit of food in his mouth, that is a measure of his gastronomic pleasure, it's all in the the length of his ‘mmm’.

For example, placing a bhelpuri of Neelkhet in his mouth, James uttered ‘mmm’ and rated it 7.8/10.

Meanwhile, after having 'kalabhuna' (a dark beef dish) in Chattogram, his expression was, ‘mmmmm’ and it’s rating was 10/10.

To get a feel of the culture of this country, James not only wore a white panjabi, but learned one or two Bangla words such as ‘Eta ki? (What’s this?)’, ‘Ekta dao (Give one)’ also. While tasting food a different restaurants, he uttered, ‘Kub balo mama, kub balo!’ which roughly translates into ‘Very good, brother, very good!’

James’s Bangla pronunciation made 'kacchi biryani' into 'Catchy Biryani'. He literally found this dish catchy and appealing and is clear from his ratings. James gave the kacchi biryani of Old Dhaka’s Grand Nawab a rating of 9.3/10.

People thronged around James Trevor on the streets of Chattogram. Plus, there was camera with him to attract even more people.

Apart from that, a foreigner, clad in white panjabi, enjoying ‘jhalmuri’ (a concoction of spicy puffed rice) on the roadside is not a very common scene around here. As a joke perhaps, some over-enthusiastic fellows handed James a green chili.

But, James who has tasted so many foods travelling many of the countries across the globe is not someone who gives up so easily. Despite his eyes welling up while taking bites out of the green chili along with jhalmuri he said, “Bangladesh is amazing.”

The writing on his T-shirt says, ‘I travel for food’. It was for food that Mark Wiens came to visit Bangladesh. He was born in US but this food blogger lives in Thailand actually.

Mark named his YouTube channel after himself. He has about 900 thousand subscribers there. Along with his wife Ying, he travels to different countries around the world.

Local food blogger duo Ridhima Khan and Rasif Shafique, famous as ‘Petuk Couple’, were their guide in Bangladesh. They themselves roam around different places, taste, cook and make videos of food. These earned the ‘Petuk Couple’ name for themselves in the country.

Mark Wiens joined in a feast at this Bangladeshi couple’s house. Fish, bhortas (spicy mashed food), meat, lentils, everything was there on the menu. The meal filled his heart along with his stomach and Mark’s expression bore proof of that.

Mark closed his eyes in awe after tasting rice mixed with the gravy of pabda fish curry. Taking a bite of beef, he said, “Oh, this is so tender that it doesn’t even need teeth to eat.”

Mark was impressed with each and every food item he tasted here, ranging from beef curry and roadside bhelpuri to kacchi biryani of Dhaka restaurants and Old Dhaka kebabs.

They even tasted local homemade cookery going to Kushtia with the ‘Petuk Couple’. While expressing his view on Bangladeshi food Mark said, “You have green chilies and onions in every single one of your recipes.”

To experience the taste of hill region food, Mark had been to Hebaang restaurant in Mirpur. Seeing the expression on his face after tasting the mashed shrimp, bamboo chicken (chicken cooked inside bamboo shoots), dried fish and many other items there, you are bound to feel hungry yourself, even if you are already full!

It’s better to call the American Will Sonbuchner (mostly known as Sony) a ‘content creator’ rather than a food blogger. The way he travels around different countries with a crew, record food videos and represents different cultures it cannot be labeled as just another ‘food blog’. Rather, each one of his videos can be called a ‘delicious’ documentary.

His YouTube channel is named ‘Best Ever Food Review Show’. Though there could be a debate on whether it is actually ‘best ever’ or not, the total number of subscribers on Sony’s channel is about 8.7 million.

He came to Bangladesh about two years ago. That time popular Bangladeshi food blogger Rafsan (Rafsan The Choto Bhai) accompanied Sony. They hit it off. Together they tasted a range of food items starting from Old Dhaka’s Haji Biryani and bakarkhani to roadside fried tripe.

Sony has a sense of humour. While describing how old Beauty Lassi is, he said “This lassi is being made since the time when even televisions weren't invented.”

Along with tasting Beauty lassi he looked for the ‘beauty’ of Bangladesh too. In his commentary Sony said, “In this tremendously busy city, when you sit down on your familiar stool or seat, where you have sat perhaps at least a 100 times before; then when you take a bite out of your favourite food, for a few seconds you’ll feel like your surroundings have gone still. The bells of rickshaw have gone silent and you’ll feel everything in this world is beautiful.”

Sony tried a lot of different food roaming around with Rafsan. From mashed fish to mashed sour wood apple and from tilapia fry to mezbani beef, they tasted it all. He seemed hesitant to try fried tripe (cow stomach lining). Standing right beside the skillet he was coughing and saying, “It’s so spicy.”

Sony gave Rafsan some tips also on how to become a good food blogger. First of all, you have to know how to describe a food. Secondly, there has to be enthusiasm in the presentation. And thirdly, you have to take wonderful shots of the food, at least nine snaps for one food item.

Hearing this Rafsan had astonishingly said, “I should take nine shots of a single food item!” “Not of the food, of each ingredients of the food”, Sony had replied.