Introducing the IG Foodbloggers’ Community
Bonding for the love of food
In our search for true food enthusiasts and honest reviewers, we stumbled upon a few passionate Instagram food bloggers and started reaching out to them in an attempt to make a list of such Instagrammers and get them on board Harriken. Little did we know, they were forming a little community themselves and shared quite similar thoughts on the country’s food scene as we do.
One of them, Ifreet (@iffybiffys) reached out to us to inform that they were organizing an Instagram food bloggers’ meet soon and would like us to be a part of it. The initiators of this meet were Ifreet Taheea, and Moushita Mahmud (@moretobrunch). Ifreet is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree in Bangladesh. Her commitment towards social development has allowed her to travel abroad and she covers about the food she tries there on her Instagram. Her love for eating and photography, both, worked behind the start of her Instagram account. Moushita moved to England some years back for university. To take a break from all the math she has to do, she started her foodstagram. Her aim is to blog internationally and also tell her followers a little story behind all the dishes she tries!
Tired of the prevalent review culture of the country and the overall ideology of the restaurant scene, they set out on a quest to find people who are equally tired and want to see changes in the food scene and of course, build a community to support and motivate each other, share each other’s journey with food and establish a greater collective reach to the group of like minded people. Once that was done, it called for a meet up, over guess what?- food! The meet up aimed to unite people who are like minded when it comes to food, despite coming from different backgrounds, and establish a proper community for food enthusiasts in Bangladesh so that the country’s food scene is exposed both in the national and international arena.
Tao Town was generous enough to host the meet last Friday, July 13 and even prepared a special set meal for the event with some yet-to-be-introduced items! Now, the meet went as you would expect a gathering of Instagram food connoisseurs to go- filled with food talk, fun and yes, a lot of stunning food photos! As like minded as the people were, each had a different story to tell. For example, Moushita, Ifreet and Taimur (@foodmaniactim) travel often and like to showcase an assorted range of cuisines from around the world. Then there is Tasnia (@foodie_06), who posts about clean eats and fitness- with healthy food recipes and herbal benefits every now and then and people concentrating on specific areas, for example @dhanmondifoodlovers. As said by Ifreet, “Our community is packed with bloggers posting about food, yet with a different purpose or outcome, making it a diverse and enjoyable bunch!”
The funniest story from the day was probably when the food arrived and 17 people rose up at a time and huddled to take the perfect flat lay picture while the other customers looked at them in shock (oops!).
The fun-packed day had its fair share of serious discussions as well. People expressed their concern on the inconsistency and declining quality of restaurants around the country, the culture of review solicitation and biased promotion to build a social following and the need for a community of fair and unbiased reviewers. Other interesting things that were discussed are the need for vegetarian/vegan menus at restaurants, more authentic food joints, a faster home delivery system, food hygiene, healthy alternatives to regular menus, good breakfast and brunch options and lastly, more diversity in cuisines. Towards the end, they decided to hold such meet-ups on a quarterly basis ultimately expanding into a larger community of unbiased reviewers by sharing support and exposure and by inspiring more people to take up foodstagramming and reviewing in general.
The meet has already seen success as many new foodstagram accounts suddenly popped up after the day! For our love of food, we, at Harriken hope that the community grows stronger with time and together, we can turn the tide in the country’s restaurant scene.
