Kolkata's culinary icons are finding a home in Dubai

From dhaba-style mutton to biryani and phuchkas, legendary names like Azad Hind, Arsalan, and Aminia are giving the diaspora - and Dubai - a taste of home

- Abhishek Sengupta

There's something magical about autumns. In Dubai, it is the time of year when the city finally begins to exhale.

The sun softens, evenings are cooler and the desert air hints at a certain mellowness. In Bengal, it gets equally beautiful, if not more - a canvas of porcelain skies, crisp breezes and five days of Durga Puja when Calcutta, as most romantics still call it, transforms into one sprawling street carnival.

And appetite, for most of us far away from home, is the easiest thing to export. So this September in Dubai, as Bengalis, and anyone with a remote Calcutta connection, gear up for Durga Puja, food from the streets of the City of Joy is once again the true anchor of celebration.

At the centre of this season's buzz is Azad Hind Dhaba, the legendary eatery from Calcutta's Ballygunge Circular Road that has finally arrived in Dubai. Known back home as a democratic dining dhaba or the gathering point for students, journalists, taxi drivers and film stars at odd hours, Azad Hind - named after colonial India's wartime army led by Subhas Chandra Bose - has been immortalised in countless midnight stories.

"The culinary landscape of Kolkata has always been rich, layered, and diverse, yet often overlooked on the global stage," says Sahil Sharma, the third generation owner, who with his wife Suzan, brought the legacy restaurant to Dubai earlier this year. "It was only a matter of time before a wider audience discovered its depth, and that's what inspired us to bring this legacy to Dubai."