About a couple of years back, when Kumar returned to India after studying in the US, he was keen to rediscover the city. “I started going out on my own to places that were not part of Delhi’s usual restaurant circuit. A few months later, I started an online community on Orkut, where I wrote of little-known eateries that serve authentic cuisine at reasonable rates. Soon people started writing back with their own favourite places and the community began extending,” says the 30-year-old.

Now, the community, called Eating Out in Delhi, has over 300 online members who exchange notes on their food forays in the city. Kumar has also added a blog for good measure, www.eoid.wordpress.com, where members record the community’s offline adventures meticulously. There are raving accounts of the soulful nihari from Haji Noora’s near Bada Hindu Rao, mouth-watering kulfis at Sitaram Bazaar and a whole range of other little-known hideouts in the city. On an average, there are about two to three excursions every month and Kumar lets group members know of the dates. Shahjahanabad is an obvious favourite, with its rich legacy of cuisines from various provinces, but even areas like Lajpat Nagar and Chittaranjan Park do not go unexplored. “The whole purpose of the community is to find out about places which are rather obscure and miss public attention,” says Kumar.

So far, there have been over 30 such excursions into all parts of Delhi. “We usually decide on a place through online discussions and then venture out together,” says Kumar.

Anybody is free to join these outings, though the usual crowd includes a cross-section—from Kumar’s academic friends to people in the hospitality industry, students and journalists.

While they sample the multi-ethnic cuisine, the group is also keen to know its history—Kumar talks of how a lot of dishes in Delhi are a legacy of the cooking done for army personnel or how the cooking methods vary according to the ethnicity of the maker. But what really bonds the group is the food and the camaraderie that comes out of shared interests. “At the end of the day, just getting together to share your mutual interest over a hearty meal become a big boost,” says Kumar. Inveterate foodies will certainly agree.