a day ago
American TikTok star planning another visit to 'beautiful' Bradford
A SOCIAL media star from America says he is already planning his next trip to Bradford after visiting the city for the first time.
Kalani Smith - who posts under the social media handle 'Kalanighosthunter' and 'Kalani Vlogs' - is most known for making food and travel videos across the UK.
The 26-year-old, who lives in Tennessee, fell in love with Yorkshire after tracing his ancestry back to different parts of the UK.
His travels take him all over the country, having recently explored Blackpool, Nottingham, and Sheffield.
Kalani Smith - who posts under the social media handle 'Kalanighosthunter' and 'Kalani Vlogs' - visits Bradford (Image: UGC) His latest adventure to Bradford was inspired by a satirical comment left under one of his recent videos.
Kalani and his wife Savannah took up the offer and stopped by Bradford city centre for a day trip.
He is now hoping to return and explore other places in the district.
'It was a place people told me not to go to, I guess - the comment was obviously satire,' Kalani told the T&A.
'I wanted to go because I heard it's the best place to get a curry. Up until that point I just knew Bradford was the place for a curry.
Kalani Smith - who posts under the social media handle 'Kalanighosthunter' and 'Kalani Vlogs' - met up with Yorkshire's own Danny Malin from Rate My Takeaway (Image: UGC) 'Yorkshire has really cool history and architecture. Bradford really surprised me how much architecture is still there in the city centre. That combined with the people up North are just really nice and a lot of good food.
'Whitby is one of my favourite places.
'You can definitely tell there's a lot of diverse culture in Bradford - there's so many different groups of folks there. You can see why it won the City of Culture. Not in a bad way either, there's not many spots you can go into like that. London feels like that, there's so many different people melding in one spot. I thought that was really cool.'
The couple decided to ask RateMyTakeaway's Danny Malin for his recommendations.
'Danny's a good friend of mine,' said Kalani.
'I asked him, being a Yorkshire lad, where he recommended in Bradford. He said the Sweet Centre for a curry.
'I will say it's different than ones I've had around the UK. The Sweet Centre ones are more authentic to Kashmir, they don't have all of the gravy sauce that I call them British curries now would have. I had lamb on the bone and spinach and chicken. You can really taste the protein and spice better that way. I enjoyed it.
At the Sweet Centre (Image: UGC) 'I still like dunking my Naan in some chicken tikka masala, butter chicken, but it was really nice to get an authentic taste of what the curry was supposed to be like - or what it evolved from.
'In terms of authenticity, that's probably the most authentic curry I've had in the UK. It was very tasty.'
He added: 'A few of my fans actually came up to me while I was streaming, people from Bradford that were super grateful I showed up. They were excited because they said not many people travel to Bradford.'
Speaking about what he's learned on his explorations around the UK, he said: 'I've learned especially here if someone's telling me not to go somewhere, odds are they've never even stepped foot in the place. It's just a lot of predisposed opinions.
Kalani Smith - who posts under the social media handle 'Kalanighosthunter' and 'Kalani Vlogs' - exploring Bradford city centre (Image: UGC) 'My goal is to try and go somewhere and find the bright spots and positives about where I'm at. I feel like after going to Bradford and some of the other places people tell me not to go, there's always really nice people to be found.
'Me and my wife both made a comment that it was absolutely beautiful, especially by City Hall and other spots. It kind of reminded us of some other cities we really enjoy. That wasn't something I was expecting, especially with the comments that people leave about Bradford, it was a nice surprise.
Kalani Smith went shopping with Bradfordian Daniel at JD Sports for a Bradford makeover (Image: UGC) 'We'll come back to Bradford and do some more exploring.
'It makes a difference as a content creator being able to highlight places that maybe wouldn't be an American's first choice or even tenth choice to go.
'One thing I am happy my platform has done is its shown Brits they can travel within the UK to places they haven't been, see stuff that is absolutely beautiful, or food that's incredible, and it's been in their backyard and they just never really opened their eyes or knew what was there.
"Although the trips to Spain are great, there's also spots here in the UK that you never knew existed.'
