Old Dhaka Street Food!!! Most Unique Bangladeshi Food in Dhaka!!

Wait, have you had intestine before? Never and ever in my life. I got a nice toothpick here. Yeah, it smells very Emily. Oh, let's go for it. Our best ever Bangladesh series began in Chittagong. We brought some food for you. Where we took on one of a kind street food. Now we're in Bangladesh's capital city, Dhaka. Just look at the crowd. It's packing, man. This is what you want. This is what Bangladesh is all about. The most populated, most densely packed city in the country. But more people means more food. And today, my sidekick and local guide, Rawsan, is on his home turf. Finally ready to show off his food reviewing skills. Yum. In this bustling city, we'll discover some of the most unique. Why noodles in a dessert though? Most delicious street food in Central Asia. When you're having a bad day, you go home and your mom, she unveils a dekchi full of biryani. It lights up your day. That sounds nice. From bizarre fruits I've never seen before. Your eyes blink. To street snacks that could set you on fire. Here we go. So jump on a tuk-tuk and prepare for a ride down to Flavortown. This is Dhaka like you've never seen before. I drink so much coffee, my chest is tight. Are you sure? I mean, that's not what... Okay, okay, I just wanted to touch you. So we've come here, this is Noir. Dude, we're going to Puran Dhaka and you gotta fit in. Like you can't go in looking like this. You gotta go in looking like this. Yeah, but you gotta pick a size because you're kind of big. In Bangladesh, the weekend starts on Friday. But before you put on your stilettos, know that it's also a day for prayer. So since it's Friday, we want to look sharp in some traditional Punjabi. I still wear the jeans, right? Yeah, you still wear the jeans or you can get a pyjama. Oh, that's 100% commitment. Is it okay if I wear the jeans? I'm kind of a punk, I want to be a little rugged. I don't know, what would look best? I think this one's very nice, honestly. I can see you killing this. Yeah? Yeah. Alright, I'm going to go for this one. Am I going to get the same one? Yeah, we got a match. Are we going to be twinning? Yeah, we're twinning. We're twinning! Let's do it! Hello, where are you from? Thank you. Where are you from? USA. Today we start in Old Dhaka. Home to thousands of historic buildings from the British colonial period. And to go with our traditional clothes, the ultimate traditional food. Biryani. The sheep meat and rice were marinated before cooking together in a pot like this. Combined with Indian spices, mustard oil, cardamom, and whether you're ready for it or not, spicy chilies. What does biryani mean to people in Bangladesh? During festivals, biryanis are a must. You're getting married. If you don't have biryani, you're not getting married. You're doing something wrong. Like it just reminds you of celebration. Celebration. This is one of the best biryani restaurants you'll find in Bangladesh. Many other companies have tried to copy, but failed hard to replicate their secret recipe. It's been here since 1939. This is the third generation literally running the place. For over 70 years, the recipe hasn't changed. Not even a single grain of salt more or less. I think we should start eating this. There's some silverware here. Yeah, you don't use it. You use your hands. Please. Oh, the rice alone is just exploding with flavor. Get some lime. Squeeze it on top. Give it a good mix. Now give it a good smell and then you eat it. Oh, the mutton is so soft. It's just succulent. The way the lime cuts through some of that heaviness gives it some nice balance. This is one of the best biryanis I've ever had. Absolutely. What happened to you that you wanted to be a food reviewer? Like what inspired you? Before, I used to watch a lot of YouTube while I eat. I want to make content which people can enjoy while eating their lunch or dinner. You're like an eating partner. Yeah. I didn't have many friends in school, so YouTube was my friend. For real? Yeah. You're a very affable guy. But before 19, I was very introvert. I had a handful of friends. I know that feel. Really? Yeah, totally. I went to like eight schools growing up. I wasn't normal at all. But at a certain point, if you say **** being normal, you go 180 and it works in your favor. And then suddenly you have a bunch of friends. Exactly. Because you stand out in a special way and people are like, oh, what's this guy doing? Yeah. Dude, food, excellent. The food's excellent. The environment, okay. The conversation, 10 by 10. What is 10 by 10? Dhaka during the day. It's frenetic, colorful, and chaotic, even in the alleyways. Not surprisingly, they also boast the highest number of rickshaws in the world. So. Falooda. It's basically a cold dessert descending from Iran. Oh, is that right? Yeah. The origins. It's very loud. Beauty Lassie, located in the heart of Old Dhaka, opened in 1923. That's before the television was even invented. Far before Bangladesh existed. They're famous for their Lassie, a blend of yogurt, water, spices, and sometimes fruit. But they're also serving up the best falooda in town. I had a different type of falooda, but it was like a frozen noodle in Iran with rose water kind of syrup. This basically has malai, which is like thickened milk. And on top of that, you have different kinds of fruits. You have dates, you have apples, you have bananas, you have pomegranates. Come on, this is like a market, man. The falooda starts with banana, rice noodles, jellies, and condensed milk on top. Mix it up, add some dates, raisins, apple, and finally, pomegranate. That's a Bangladesh beauty. Tons of fruit, like super fresh. The noodle itself, you can't really even feel it under it all. It's this kind of pudding base. Oh, man. By the way, my one has ice cream, yours doesn't. Okay, hold on. Is this okay to do? Yeah. This really complements the fruity flavor, right? Fruity ice cream, man. Oh, I like yours too. This is like they melted some vanilla ice cream and then drizzled it on top. Oh, it's like sweetness overload. As we start our journey for today, I want to ask you, what do you think it takes to be a good food reviewer? I think you need to know how to express it, the general opinion. You know, I'm learning from you. When you're eating it, I'm not even eating it yet, and you're eating it. It feels like I'm eating it. That's weird, right? Whoa, like mirror neurons. I'm here to try to bring you to the next level of food reviewing. Yeah. So here, it starts with the food description. This one has curry leaves, tons of delicious Indian spices. That's what I say when I don't know what's in it. After that, it's the enthusiasm that you bring to it, the energy. You've got the energy inside of you. I've got the energy. But you've got to control the energy and focus it. Ready? One, two, three. Hi, guys. Next, it's the sexy food shots. All right, I've got my camera here. Here's your subject. Yeah. Let me see some sexy food shots. Let's go. Okay, okay. So I'll take it like this. Okay, that's pretty good. We call that the flyover. Then I try to take a close-up. Two shots? Yeah. That's it? Yeah. You've got to take ten shots. Ten shots of each food. Ten shots of each ingredient. Yeah. The last thing, if you want to be a top-level food reviewer, is eating stamina. It's not about eating three meals in a day. It's about can you eat four, five, six, seven meals. And not just little nibbles. You've got to eat it. Eat it. You can't throw it up. Give me some water. We've got to keep shooting. So how do you... You've got to work out. Oh, you've got to work out. You've got to go to the gym. And that's kind of... That's kind of... You've got to deal with the discomfort. Like, can you be in a position where you're so full that you hate yourself, but you still want to take another bite? I want to do it. You can maybe do it. Maybe? But it's up to you. Nighttime in Dhaka. Same vibe, same noise, different colors. The prayers are finished, and the streets let loose with people in search of something to eat. Street food stalls light up. Cooking or baking, the type of food you'll only find here. Right beside us, this is a type of bread. Flat bread. Not that boring round bread. This one's put in a special tawa. It's like a Bengali oven over there. Wait, tawa is like a big skillet. No, no, no. It's an incense. Tandoor. Dude, no wonder I'm a food reviewer. Pakarkhani is a spice type of bread that is a unique part of Bangladeshi cuisine. For locals, it can be a snack or a full meal, depending on how in love you are with these biscuits. Oh man, Pakarkhani has been here for ages. And you want to know how Pakarkhani came? There's a story behind it. Okay. It happened like many years back. There was this general from Chittagong. His name was Pakarkhani. And he fell in love with this dancer named Kani Begum. And this turned into a really Romeo and Juliet kind of thing. Basically, Mr. Pakarkhani had to even fight a tiger just for this girl. And eventually, the girl died at the end. And Mr. Pakarkhani, his favorite flatbread, it was renamed to Pakarkhani. Like, his name was Pakar? Pakarkhani. And her name was Kani? Kani. Pakarkhani. Okay. Yeah. This really makes me hungry. The coolest part is how it's made. A blend of flour, salt, oil, black cumin, and vegetable shortening. Each piece is stuck by hand into a tandoor oven. Not a tawa. You know more about my country than me. That's kind of sad. Pull it out while it's steaming hot and serve. This is it. So, it looks very simple. It's a flatbread. I'm going to break it in half. When you bite into it, you can feel multiple layers. I want to feel multiple layers. Let go. You should have this with some cha. That's what I was missing. Because it makes me thirsty. It makes me want to drink something. This one has cheese on top. Yo, it tastes like goldfish. Have you ever had goldfish crackers? I had crackers, but not goldfish crackers. That's exactly what this is. But this is like a hundred-year-old goldfish. I love it. I think this is too easy for Rafsan. He's showing me the greatest hits. Food he's tried a thousand times before. It's time to try something new. Something with a bit of danger. I think I had this a long time ago when I was in India. You got this. Is it the same here? Same one. But what kind of unique twist has he put on it? He's saying the one he makes, it sells better than Delhi because he uses 18 spices. Wait, who's going to go first? Have you done this before? No. Dude, I'm kind of scared. I don't want to do it, honestly. Okay, I'll go first. Paan. It does everything. It's an after-dinner mint. A snack. And some say it could cure a cold or a headache. It is a cocktail of ingredients. He calls those spices. That's like coconut. I see little gummy bears. Dude, it's not. These are spices. I think anything can be a spice, according to this guy. Piled on the betel leaf at an incredible pace. Tonight, ours has 18 ingredients, and I have no idea what they are. Okay, it's on fire. It's on fire. Dude, are you sure? Wait, is it actually super hot? It's really hot. I'm not going to have it. It's on fire. Here we go. Can you handle it? You all right? Thousands of flavors going through my mouth. I don't know what's going on. You would call those all spices? No. No, it's candy. It's like different sweets and mints and random stuff. Anyways, listen. You did it. You were worried. You were afraid. You overcame. You're one step closer to being a God-like food reviewer, my man. Man. In Dhaka, when the sun goes down, the streets heat up. Not literally. It just sounds kind of cool to say that. We're leaving old Dhaka and heading across town to Al-Nuri Masjid Road, one of the busiest in the city. Here, they have a fruit. It grows in Bangladesh and Southeast Asia, but this is my first time ever seeing it. What is it? Wood apple. It's the size of an apple, and it's hard like wood. They basically make a slit, and they mix it up with a stick. After mixing and pulverizing the wood apple's insides, he adds a combination of salt and red chili powder and gives it another stir. Knock it around a few times, and we're ready to reveal what's inside. If you just have it normally, it would have this tonic smell. It would be very pungent. But since they mixed it up, it becomes very masala flavor-ish. All right, let's try it out. Okay. There's a sweet and sour kick. Your eyes blink. I almost turned inside out. That was so sour. But it's so fermented. It really tastes like the mash after you would make wine or something, and then they pull out the stuff that made the wine. It tastes like that. You tasted mash? Dude, do you know what this will help? What? In five more days, this helps with your digestion. Is that right? Yeah, you're going to have a good poop tomorrow. What about tonight? Oh, yeah, just might be. When you wake up late at 3 a.m. and boom, you're pooping. This one is out there, man. This is how you eat it. This is a snack. I've never seen it anywhere else. Do they have this in India? You don't have this in India. No? Guess what, India? You don't have this. You might have 17 herbs, but not cod bill. But we're not creating any animosity. No. There's no competition. Dude, I'm coming to India next year. To close off a night of reckless eating, a street food that reminds me that I'm still in Asia. We're going to be trying this out. This is bot, like intestine. Yeah. It's so spicy. Yeah. What did you say it is? I couldn't even hear you. I was dying. It's bot, like intestine. Intestines of what? Of a cow. These intestines have already been boiled for hours to cook them through and remove any gamey smell. Now, they've been sitting in a mix of tomato sauce, soy sauce, pepper, turmeric, garlic powder, and cinnamon. They cook it in oil with onion. And even the onions are attempting to, like, remove the gaminess. Yeah. Like, all over Central Asia, Middle East, you'll find people cooking, like, lamb, certain cuts of meat with onion to try to get rid of that smell. Yeah. And I can't say it's definitely working. It's definitely not. There we go. Okay, that's looking pretty nice. Wait, have you had intestine before? Never and ever in my life. This will be my first time. So it can be good, or it can be a disaster. Yeah, if not cooked properly. Or prepared properly, or cleaned, especially clean. We don't know where this cow's been, but let's give it a try. I got a nice toothache here. Yeah, it smells very animal-y. Let's go for it. It's pretty good. Chewy, a lot of flavor. The texture is, like, rubbery. I gotta say, the smell is very animal-y, kind of intense. But then when you put it in your mouth, all that fades away. The coating itself is... It's pretty good. And the more I dig into it, and I cut down the layers of fat, I get, like, a hint of masala. It's been marinated well, right? Yeah. Honestly, I'm quite surprised. Coming to Dhaka, trying some street food. There's many similarities to India that I see here and there. Even the fire pan. But when I see something like this, wow, cow intestine. It's something you're not really gonna find anywhere in India. Like, this is Bangladesh food. It's super unique. Dhaka is a whirling tornado of stimulus and action. But when you take a second to slow down, when you pull up a stool or a seat at that shop you've been to a hundred times before, and when you pile your spoon high, taking the perfect bite, even if just for a moment, the city slows down, the rickshaw bells stop ringing, and all is right in the world. Rahsaan, he knows his stuff. I can't say I'm not impressed. But before this series is over, we have one more challenge in front of us. We are gonna be feeding 4,000 people. I'm crying. Finally, I want to thank Ash, Sifad, and Riya for making our shoot in Dhaka happen. Thanks, guys. From researching and shooting to editing and mastering, our 10-person, best-ever food review show team works hard to roll out the highest quality travel food entertainment twice a week. If you like what we do here, please consider supporting our Patreon. Patreon allows fans of the show to contribute a monthly sum and receive a load of extras, like foodie video releases, private Q&As, and beyond. To learn more about our Patreon, check out the link in the description box down below. And if you can't give or don't even feel like it, that's okay, too. We're just happy you're here. Boom. That has been street food in Dhaka. A huge thank you to my dude right here. Finally, officially, a food reviewer. You've done it. Aren't you gonna give me a graduating ceremony? Like the, I want a bandana, man. I'll think about it. Hey, do let me know in the comments section if I get a bandana or not. That is it for this one. Guys, I will see you next time. Peace. All right, good. Yeah, that was nice. Let's head. Let's go.