Foodies On The Run: The new food vloggers on the block

Bhubaneswar: Smart city Bhubaneswar today proudly boasts of a thriving food culture with cafes, restaurants, street food outlets and trucks offering an array of delectable choices. Social media too is abuzz with foodaholics in the city trying out new dishes, excited discussions and recommendations of what’s best and where to eat this weekend. That’s not all! People are also bonding over food, creating online communities and even doing their bit promoting authentic Odia cuisines.

Odisha Sun Times found a social media handle called ‘Foodies On The Run’ featuring quintessential street food in and around the twin cities.

Started by two young techies Sampark Das and Sarthak Champatiroy and inspired by the food and travel show, Highway On My Plate aired on NDTV Good Times,

so far it has five videos on its YouTube channel, exclusively focusing on the street food of Odisha.

Every weekend they would hunt down a particular joint and travel to that place to try out the food. What began as a fun experiment with videos of their food outings shot on a smartphone, gradually took shape of a hobby and they decided to present it to the world.

“Odisha has so much to offer when it comes to street food; be it dahibara-aloo dum, gupchup-chaat or even momos and sizzlers. There are so many mouth-watering snacks available in every gali (street corner) of this state and every dhaba along every highway has something unique to serve. We want to present this street food culture of Odisha,” said Sampark.

Going by the belief that food of a particular place is integral to its cultural identity, they want to travel across Odisha and popularise the street food speciality of various locales on a larger forum.

“We are working professionals and get only weekends off. Therefore, it becomes difficult for us to regularly post videos. However, we wish to continue making these clips of our experiences,” said Sarthak, who informed us that their next stop will be Berhampur and its street cuisine.

So far, they have showcased Khao Gali of Bhubaneswar and mutton of Nana Dhaba, dahibara of Babula, chaat of Kallia and kulfi of Buxi Bazaar in Cuttack. Their banter with the customers, shop owners and food makers is something to look forward to in the videos, apart from the drool-worthy food visuals.

According to them, street vendors and dhabas adjacent to highways are now concentrating more on the hygiene aspect. Vendors of street food can be seen wearing food service gloves, hairnets and stocking up on tissue papers and disposable cutlery, they added.