Saptarshi Chakraborty and Insiya Poonawala, the creative couple at Bong Eats, left their jobs as a software engineer and an editor, respectively, to become full-time content creators. Interestingly, when they first thought of launching their channel in 2014-15, they were inspired by Bangladeshi cooking channels. 

"We observed that there were many good cooking channels based on Bangladeshi cuisine. But on our side, there were not many such channels, at least at that time. Moreover, we decided to make videos with English descriptions because when we were living in the USA for a brief time, we realised people there were not very aware of Bangalee cuisine," said Saptarshi.

"They know Indian cuisine for butter chicken, tandoori chicken and a few other North Indian dishes. But many have no idea how much we love to consume fish or how diverse South Asian cuisine is," he added.

For the uninitiated, Bong Eats is a Kolkata-based cooking channel on YouTube, committed to creating hearty Bangalee meals that our moms cook for us every day. The channel has equal acceptance among Bangladeshi audiences. 

"As I learned from different tutorials myself, I know the importance of details in perfecting a dish. So we try to show every process starting from washing, cutting, cooking, etc to serve an ultimate tutorial for cooking Bangalee dishes and make cooking accessible to all," By Insiya Poonawala

"As I learned from different tutorials myself, I know the importance of details in perfecting a dish. So we try to show every process starting from washing, cutting, cooking, etc to serve an ultimate tutorial for cooking Bangalee dishes and make cooking accessible to all," 

Bong Eat's aesthetically pleasing and in-depth culinary content can motivate any novice to cook. Currently, Bong Eats has 1.47 million subscribers on YouTube. So far they have uploaded over 200 recipes on their channel.

"Bong Eats is a passion project of both Insiya and I. From editing to cooking we do everything by ourselves. For a brief period, we had someone to write and update our website with new recipes, but now it's only the two of us," added Saptarshi.

Saptarshi and Insiya founded Bong Eats in 2016 with the sincere intent of promoting the goodness of Bangalee cuisine. For anyone who wanted to explore Bangalee cuisine, Bong Eats simplified the procedure for them. 

"In 2015 we started to prepare videos but we were sceptical as we never had any prior experience. It took a year for us to get ready for this journey," said Saptarshi.

Recently, they launched another channel called Bong Eats Bangla, dedicated to people who enjoy cooking tutorials in Bangla. The videos hold similar setups with voiceovers. It's certainly a step up as Saptarshi's calming voice, accompanied by a soothing, very ASMR-like sound of cooking, leaves a mesmerising sensation for the audience to feel. 

Insiya and Saptarshi both enjoy cooking, and they experiment with recipes together while filming. However, in videos, we mainly see Insiya's hand as Saptarshi shoots. Additionally, Insiya edits the contents.

"From our college days, we were into cooking. We initially decided to start blogging. However, after a few years, the trend of watching content on YouTube rose and we also managed to buy some gear and started making cooking videos," said Saptarshi.

Growing up in a Bangalee joint family, participating in the kitchen was very natural for Saptarshi from his childhood. Moreover, before the partition, his family lived in Bikrampur, Dhaka. 

In Insiya's case, her parents moved to West Bengal in the 70s. They belong to a Bohra Muslim family from Gujrat. Even though she was not brought up by Bangalee parents, growing up in Kolkata made her fall in love with the simplicity and taste of Bangalee cuisine.

"I was initially not into cooking but while studying in college I had to cook for myself. So, intending to be self-dependent, I started to enjoy the process of cooking," said Insiya.

While popular cooking channels like Tasty or Food Fusions focus on short videos for both learning and micro entertainment purposes, Bong Eats' target audience is those who genuinely want to learn the step-by-step process of cooking. Therefore, their videos are lengthy and informative.

"As I learned from different tutorials myself, I know the importance of details in perfecting a dish. So we try to show every process starting from washing, cutting, cooking, etc to serve an ultimate tutorial for cooking Bangalee dishes and make cooking accessible to all," said Insiya.

Bong Eats videos feature background music by the band Bemanan, which has become a signature characteristic of their contents. Using calming music goes well with Bangalee cooking tutorials so the couple decided to add music that symbolises their culture and is also contemporary.

The duo said that channels like Chefsteps inspired them. They also spoke highly about Bangladeshi cooking channels like Rumanar Rannaghor, Banglar Rannaghor and Spice Bangla. They were even planning to visit Bangladesh before the pandemic.

"Before the Pandemic we and Spice Bangla duo Toma and Britto were supposed to visit Bangladesh to explore Bangladeshi cuisine. And then we decided we would give them a food tour of Kolkata. But the pandemic ruined the plan," said Insiya.

The duo think that while the foods are quite similar in the two Banglas, there are some differences as well. 

"Most of the dishes are common but Bangladesh has more diversity in vorta items I think," said Saptarshi.

Apart from traditional recipes, Bong Eats also makes videos on Kolkata street foods. Moreover, Bong Eats added a special segment to their channel called 'Rannaghore Ke'. The show features guests who are friends of the creators but also features celebrities. Nobel laureate Abhijit Banarjee appeared as a guest in one episode. 

Lastly, we asked what their ideal Durga Puja delights were. They both said, "We love to eat Biryani in Dashami. Then we roam around a lot in the streets eating rolls."

Durga Puja special Recipes by Bong Eats

500 g shona moong dal (small-grained moong), ‍500 g aged gobindobhog rice‍, 320 g Bengali-style ghee (see notes)‍, 65 g cashew nuts, 65 g raisins, ‍5 g (12 pcs) dried red chillies‍,3 g (15 pcs) cardamom‍, 2 g (5 pcs) cinnamon‍, 2 g (15 pcs) cloves, 3 g (10 pcs) bay leaves, 8 g (2 tsp) cumin seeds, 6 g turmeric, 2 g garam masala, 70 g ginger paste‍, 5 g, green chilli paste, 5 g slit green chillies, ‍35 g salt, 100 g sugar and 2.2–2.3 L hot water

Serve with: Labra and Begun Bhaja

Kolkata Egg Roll: The city's most iconic street food

‍‍300 g maida (flour)]6 g salt, 6 g salt, 14 g sugar, 16 g dalda (shortening), 180–200 g warm water

‍‍4 eggs, 150 g onions, 4 pcs green chillies, 1 large lime, 1–2 tsp chaat masala, 1–2 tsp rock salt, 80 g tomato ketchup, 1 pc cucumber (optional), ~ 75 g vegetable oil

Narkel'er Naru: A coconut-and-jaggery sweetmeat

500 g grated coconut, 300 g soft aakhi Gur (jaggery made from sugarcane) and 100 g sugar (large crystals)

Bong Eats / Bangalee cuisine / Bangla Food and Beverage / cuisine

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