About a year ago, I received a DM over twitter that went: “Is this you: http://t.co/GAVYjLo?"

Oh relax, it wasn’t spam — well that was when twitter wasn’t so infected anyway. Point is, it was linked to a foodblog (go ahead, click it), but the friend had confused it as being this blog because of “eerily similar[ity] to u!” Another food blog? With much better pictures? Ooh. I hastily posted what I can only imagine now was a creepy comment and didn’t think anything of it afterward. Who responds to blog comments right? A grand total of 4 minutes later, I received an email titled “Hi — just saw your comment on my blog :)”.

Today, Famished in Arabia (or FiA) as we were coined, is a group of 56 food bloggers (as of 8 p.m. GMT+4 today) covering various walks of life and blogging about a whole variety of different things — from expert restaurant reviews, expert bakers, expert pickle-makers, expert restaurant owners and.. well there’s me too. The group has seen a phenomenal growth — oh a history buff you say? you want ALL the details? — anyway, the rest of you, like I was saying…

Today Famished in Arabia celebrates a year of existance. And what a marvelous one at that. Some very creative people, some very talented people and most importantly some very passionate people. This means that as the site grows, the information flowing gets even better — new places worth checking out, suggestions on evening-outings, and even tips on cooking and baking better. Even more, how to photograph food — some of the improvements (What rubbish you say? You haven’t seen any? Pfft, go away!) you see on this blog over the past year have happened because of things I’ve picked up by just admiring all of these blogs.

Right, so what’s the point of the post you ask? Well it’s to say Happy Birthday FiA. It’s to be happy and proud to see it grow into something great — just think about it, for a country like UAE, to have 56 independent food bloggers each with their own unique voice. That’s amazing. And you know what? I’m actually sure there are more out there, waiting until the silent assassins..er…acquirers at FiA pounce and draw them in with cupcakes…

I leave you with the RSS feed aggregate of the food bloggers, and if you’re on twitter, the FiA list. Go nuts! Just don’t forget the chocolate.

UPDATE: Read other posts from the group on the 1st year celebrations here.