My sister keeps telling me that I should create a scrapbook or file or repository or some sort of organized something of places where my blog has been mentioned. So here goes Sis, in this day and age of e-everything, why don’t I just shove all the happy press memories of my blog…on my blog. Genius.

DECEMBER 1, 2010

My blog’s first time in the media…ever. I felt like one of those deadly gorgeous ladies who’s just won the grand title up on stage at the Ms. Universe beauty pageant – shock, her hands shoot up [daintily] to her face, and she’s overcome with emotion. That’s exactly what it felt like. Except that I’m not deadly gorgeous…and I didn’t have thousands of eyes ogling at me as I did the dainty hand-on-face shock sequence. That, and Emily Shardlow had given me the heads-up that she was publishing this article. So it wasn’t much of a surprise…but heck, it felt awesome anyway. And I bought out every paper edition of the newspaper from the petrol pump nearby that day.

APRIL 2011

I was stuffing my face at Shake Shack when Foodiva brought over a copy of the BBC Good Food ME and flipped it open to this so that Sally, she and I could do a little dance of joy together.

With something like that staring you in the face, you’re so overcome with joy and fulfilment that you don’t even need dessert. But I ate dessert anyway – and a truckload of creamy ice-cream custard at that.

MAY 3, 2011

Braun had invited me to try out their latest chordless blender, and take part in this cooking competition with four other super talented foodie bloggers.  I’m never taking part in a culinary challenge again…unless I’m appointed judge and can watch the stress from my cushy little judging table. But heck, for all the fingers I’d chopped off and burned during this challenge, it was cool to get some love from Khaleej Times.

Oh and no, if it wasn’t glaringly obvious already, I didn’t win.

AUGUST 2011

I’d submitted a bunch of most edible-seeming photos to BlogHer for this Best of Blogs 2011 photo contest they were doing right before their conference in Atlanta. Thanks to Lin’s stunningly pretty home-grown tomatoes, to mommy who reduced them down into this thick pulpy traditionally Hyderabadi curry, and to Lin’s pretty jars, the photo made it into the book (along with a bunch of other scrumptious pictures from other bloggers around the world that I haven’t shown here). Photos are easy to snap when everyone else does all the kitchen work.

SEPTEMBER 2011

BBC Good Food ME asked me if I could write them an article about some of the best-kept secrets and must-tries for foodies in Dubai…my mental reaction: HELLS YEAH. [Luckily my mental reactions metamorphosize into more disciplined and coherent sentences by the time they hit my email editor.] I got so jittery with excitement that day that I…crashed my car.

Moral of story: Do not drive when jittery with excitement.

NOVEMBER 2011

The PR company hosting the opening of the W Grill in Dubai sat me down across from the journalist writing for the Personal Finance section of The National…soft-spoken, pleasant Alice Haine, who, kudos to her journalism skills, found out everything there was to know about my foodie obsession in the city…and chatty food-obsessed me walked away without an ounce of advice for my (currently non-existent) lifetime saving strategy. A couple of days later, she posted an insightful article that referenced the food bloggers she’d met at the restaurant opening and our chat over dinner…

T’is true. I blog for love, not money. [unless you count the pennies I make on the one strip of advertising on my site, which I’m saving up so I can buy a pack of gum in 2015.]

PS. My little piece of personal finance advice:  2.5 dirham fatayers are a real godsend for the financially clueless.

MARCH 2012

Emily Shardlow from The National was covering foodie recommendations from a motley crew comprising a “local food blogger, a chef, a fresh ingredients enthusiast, a food writer-slash-television presenter and a cafe owner.”  We used the article as an excuse to eat through three of my favorite restaurants in Meena Bazaar (of which two made it to the final print.)

The actual print edition was spectacular, the editors had dedicated an entire cover page to the photograph of the Bangladeshi server at the momos restaurant. I’m sure the staff there was bowled over with the coverage!

APRIL 2012

A fellow blogger stumbled upon this surprise mention of my fellow blogaroos and myself in the local Scene Magazine. YAY FOR BLOGGER LOVE!

OCTOBER 2012

The super talented Meeta Wolff from What’s for Lunch, Honey was in town for a food photography workshop, so The National reached out to a bunch of resident foodies and got their perspective on food photography. Here’s how I get the fugly pictures slapped up on my blog.