While Delhi offers a bewildering array of eating joints, there is a tendency in the media to focus on those which make commercial sense to the media mogul, but which regrettably often make little sense to those looking for value for money and plain good taste. Consequently, most of us don’t even get to hear about the many unpretentious places which thankfully, still abound in Delhi, and which — whether elegant hotels or simple streetside stalls — offer a truly rewarding experience to the foodie who is willing to venture away from the beaten path.

Eating Out in Delhi is thus an attempt to discover and share the hidden gems of Delhi’s food scene, those

gastronomic violets by the mossy stone,
half hidden from the eye,
fair as a star, when only one
is shining in the sky.

… with apologies to Wordsworth

In its very spirit, such an endeavour must share inputs from an open community of people. To that end, we eagerly invite you to join us as a contributor on this blog. Alternatively, if you have your own web space which shares a similar philosophy, we’d be happy to blogroll you. Either way, do drop us a line using the contact form at the end!

Happily, a small community has already built up around this little venture of ours. There is an Orkut forum with over 500 members at last count, which hosts online discussions. In addition, a budding core of committed foodies has emerged, who enjoy getting together for “field trips” to hitherto unexplored eateries every now and then. We post plans of such outings on twitter. To join us, please use the contact form below, and join the orkut community as well!

And if you’re just passing by, if nothing else, do drop us a comment or two on our blog posts, to share your opinions, suggestions, and to encourage us in our exploits!

Bon appetit!

~ Hemanshu Kumar

Media Mentions

Here’s what Time Out Delhi had to say about us in December 2007. They interviewed Hemanshu again for their anniversary issue in April 2009, and mentioned our blog in a July 2009 issue as well.

Here’s something from the Indian Express, from January 2008.

There’s a piece in the India Today as well, from March 2008.

We were mentioned in the October 2008 issue of American Express’ Departures magazine.

Hemanshu discussed EOiD and Delhi’s street food on The Expat Show at livemint.com. The discussion was broken up into two different podcasts posted in December 2008; you can find them here and here.

Hemanshu also hosted Andrew Zimmern on the Delhi edition of his show Bizarre Foods, which first aired on the Travel Channel in April 2008.

EOiD member Sachin Kalbag regularly writes about his foodie experiences in the Mail Today newspaper. He published pieces about our Karim’s outing on Nov 23, 2008 and our Lucknow trip on Dec 7, 2008.