Meet Arva Ahmed, telling Dubai’s stories through food

HER WALKING TOURS, YOUTUBE SHOW CELEBRATE EMIRATE’S UNTOLD FLAVOURS

- BY LAKSHANA N. PALAT Assistant Features Editor

Salted duck egg. Followed by a mouthwatering description of the egg being stirred into a sauce for fried calamari. “It coats the rings with a salty, cheesy flavour that’s stupidly addictive. Think cheese puffs,” reads her blog.

As a fellow foodie, I went looking for Dubai-based Arva Ahmed’s food blog. The post on the duck ended with her firmly telling her avid, hungry audience that she was going behind kitchen doors to see how the Malaysian chef at Oriental preps it.

She signs off, Arva Ahmed, Founder and Chief Executive Muncher, Frying Pan Adventures. I see chief executive muncher and I’m sold.

So begins a conversation with Ahmed and her food journey — one that moves from growing up in flavourful neighbourhoods in Dubai, to preparing thalis during her college days in the US, to launching walking food tours across the city.

Food beyond brochures

And now, she’s the host of Ditch the Silver, a YouTube show uncovering the untold stories behind Dubai’s diverse cuisines. The sentiment is overwhelming: You only know the heart of a country, once you have walked the streets, navigated the maze of neighbourhoods, eaten from shops, tucked away in small neighbourhoods, shops that have existed for more than 40 years.

As she emphasises, her new show is all about the food that you do not find in tourist brochures. It’s far from the polished plates of fine dining. It’s about real food, people and flavours that carry memory and meaning.

Decoding Dubai’s ‘foodways’