Food e Mag dxb | And Why This E-Magazine?

[Edited on 5th Nov, 2014: Food e Mag dxb now has its own inbuilt reader in its own website. There have been a few changes in the Editorial team.]

What is Food e Mag dxb? Why Food e Mag? Introducing Dubai’s best selection of Food and Dining news in a bimonthly e-Magazine, compiled from some of the brilliant work of the talented bloggers around the region. I have been blogging for the last two years and as I have written in an earlier post… Blogging has given me much more personal gratification than my chosen career in advertising. I have also given myself to Blogging much more than I have done to anything in my life. I have interacted with people with whom I have never even met before. I have received emails from people who have wanted to see me because they felt nostalgic, homesick and felt that my writings had touched them by connecting them to their own roots and culinary heritage. I have met people from so many nationalities and culture and they have all willingly opened up their homes and kitchens to me. Along with the food that we have eaten together, out came their food stories, kitchen secrets and even personal tribulations.

And as I delved deeper into blogs, I have realised how much passion and effort it takes to build a blog with an unique voice. A good blogger is knowledgeable, impartial, has unique insights and writes for an audience that knows and loves them. They have their own niche and each blog caters to a particular segment and deals with a specific food subject. We – Sarah (who writes a very popular blog, The Hedonista) and I, both of us felt the urge to go beyond our own blogs and bring out a content that will be inspirational. And that content seemed to have been there. As individual bloggers, we were not being able to go beyond the philosophy and the direction of our own blogs. At the same time we wanted to showcase the work of bloggers around us who had been inspiring us. This gave birth to our digital baby – Food e Mag dxb. A snapshot of our thoughts from the Editors’ Note…We wanted this magazine to be different. It had to inspire people with its recipes, culinary travels and also chalk out the regular happenings in the Dubai dining scene – for after all, this is the city that we have all build our homes in. It’s been days and days of hard work – starting from the selection of the articles to the selection of the right ‘e’ in our logo. I did a few logo designs, Sarah did only one – the one that you see. She liked one of my logos. But I loved her’s. I felt that there was a certain sporadic rhythm in the entire scheme of design. But our bone of contention had been the ‘e’. So there was a time when we went through all the ‘e’s that were available in our Font Folder and finally settled on the ‘e’ you see!

Things hadn’t been smooth. Sarah’s design would open up in my computer with different fonts and my designs would look misaligned in hers. There were files being transferred to an fro across the virtual space. Sometimes, I didn’t like what she did. The other times, she didn’t like what I did. The launch of the magazine didn’t happen on time. But the one thing that we both shared was – what incredible work has been done by the bloggers – we have to bring it out and do justice to those work! There were many technical glitches – we were both novices at how to give shape to the magazine. Just when we thought that it was ready and could be published, we started our social media… Launching Soon/Loading 75%/Loading 99%… and then we got stuck. Once loaded, the magazine didn’t look right at all, it lost its links, the fonts changed. Both of us were so deep into the magazine and working on it for far too long (Sarah crashing the hotel internet in Cortina where she had supposedly gone on a ski-break – all the while she had been there, she was loading files onto dropbox). It seemed only right to wait for as long as it would take, to get the first issue out perfectly. Now it all seems like a dream and I feel like giving big hugs to my gorgeous co-editor – she has endured many whatsApp messages of mine, even when her status read *Sleeping*!

The initial response has been very warm and overwhelming. ‘Inspiring, Beautiful and Different’… are a few of the feedback that we have been getting on our launch issue – we are really thrilled. Have a flip through our much awaited launch issue here… and tell us what you feel and do subscribe if you like it (it’s free!). You may click here to visit the Food e Mag dxb website and also win a ‘Mongolian Dinner Night For Two’ at Mazina, the culinary powerhouse of The Address, Dubai Marina. Do bombard our digital baby with your love on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (you will find us as @foodemagdxb everywhere) and help us to trend a new hashtag… #foodemagdxb. You will find the icons below and I have kept them really big lest you miss them. But remember, while the magazine is one, it’s a bit schizophrenic on social media – because Sarah and I are completely two individuals with two different ideas on how to approach social media. Expect some frenzy. From my side, I promise that never shall I splatter the magazine, Sarah or myself in my blog. But right now, as she tweeted, yes #woohooImAnEditor!

Unblogging it all… Ishita

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