With chief minister Mamata Banerjee stressing at the Bengal Global Business Summit 2022 that tourists visiting Bengal must try and live at homestays and mix with the local populace and eat the local cuisines, food connoisseurs in Kolkata believe the trend of food vlogging (video blogs) has immense potential to draw tourists and thereby fetch a handsome revenue for the state through ‘food tourism’.

Miss Banerjee highlighted that in the coming years Bengal will further rise as an international tourist destination. She requested foreigners to live in homestays and eat the local food to get the essence of Bengal. She highlighted that the Andal airport in Durgapur and the Bagdogra airport in North Bengal may become international airports, further assisting in the cause of food tourism.

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Food enthusiast and vlogger Indrajit Lahiri, better known as ‘Foodka’, pairs up with the Bengali actor and comic Mir Afsar Ali, visits the various corners of the state and beyond its borders, to highlight the authentic food of a particular region on Youtube.

He told The Statesman that food vlogging has immense potential in bringing revenues to Bengal where food rules the hearts and allows intermingling of cultures. He feels the digital medium has immense potential in inviting people outside the state and country to visit Bengal and indulge in its multifarious delicacies.

Hilsa, the quintessential Bengali fish, is usually prepared without onions and garlic in West Bengal but these ingredients are compulsory in Bangladesh. “When it comes to biryani, Bangladeshis swear by “kacchi biryani” where the marinated meat and rice are slow-cooked together in a sealed pot over a flame, but here, biryani is “pakki”, where cooked or semi-cooked meat is added to the rice,” explains Mr Lahiri.

He said, “Food tourism is now more popular than ever as vloggers visit several regions to highlight the famous cuisine. This has been of immense success. Our team recently collaborated with an eminent Bangladeshi food vlogger, Adnan Faruque Hillol, who visited Kolkata for a food trail from Zakaria Street to a famous biryani joint in Barrackpore, among others.

“We endeavour to narrate together the delicious story of the prevailing Bengali cuisine preparations in both countries. Through this joint venture, we wish to showcase Dhaka and Kolkata as unique food-tourism destinations in the Indian subcontinent. Earlier, we collaborated with the US consulate in Kolkata to take their delegates on a food trail in Kolkata while the French ambassador too was taken on a similar food trail,” Mr Lahiri said.