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Dubai: On a Middle Eastern food trail

Frying Pan Adventures walks you through the legacies that combine to give the city its food identity

If you really want to know a place, you’ve got to dig into its food, the legacies that spice them, and the stories that bind communities. In Dubai, this is doubly difficult — because while the city itself has bountiful flavours, it has over the years become home to communities from the world over — and these groups bring their own ingredients, flavour profiles and recipes into the mix.

Which is why, taking a food tour down the lanes of Old Dubai is so alluring. And homegrown food tour company Frying Pan Adventures is happy to guide. “The reason we do the food tours is to showcase a side of the city that has been around, has been in existence even before all the modern, ‘viral’ trends cropped up,” says Farida Ahmed, General Manager at Frying Pan Adventures.

Farida and her sister, Arva, began navigating food trails in Dubai in 2013. The Covid-19 scare was superbly handled by the city’s government. However, there were some businesses, especially tourism-related ones, that couldn’t help but face a slowdown. “There was definitely a decline in visitors to the city and even with residents being out and about. But at the moment, Covid seems like it happened in the very distant past,” says Farida.

“In terms of our tours, it’'s back to what we were doing pre-Covid. And yes, we’ve made certain tweaks and certain changes to incorporate more elements of hygiene. For example, in our totes now we provide wet wipes and hand sanitisers as well.” On the tours, the guide speaks through an audio system; guests must wear headphones to be able to follow along. “We used to provide earphones and then take them back and sanitise them — we stopped doing that. We just give out disposable ones now. We encourage people to bring their own as well.

“But in terms of the food, the walks, pretty much everything is back to what it was before Covid, including our group sizes.”

The most popular trails are the ones that take people to the Dubai souks and Creekside, says Farida, adding that the other one that’s most requested is the Middle East food pilgrimage, which allows you to sample falafel and hummus and kunafeh and shawarma and kebabs and…well, you get the idea. “We also do the Little India tour and special edition tours that are available for VIP pass members (from our free loyalty programme) to book,” she explains.

The latest trail the sisters added to their roster was the Dubai Mall food tour, which made it to the list this summer. “We wanted to give people an option of an indoor experience. After repeated rounds of research and recces, we found a way of bringing our old Dubai flair to it, and featuring a few homegrown concepts, a few unique ones as well. This will now be available year-round.”

As you can imagine, going on a food tour calls for comfy shoes, loose pants and a robust appetite. But there are bound to be leftovers. In order to not waste food, Frying Pan Adventures has formulated a plan to pay it forward. “What I do is I go up to the cashiers or servers and say, ‘Look, this food has not been touched by our hands; we’ve used cutlery to serve ourselves. Can you help me to ensure that this food is given to someone who would like to eat it?’ You cannot make it sound like you’re doing someone a favour by giving them food, because you're not. They’re helping you to reduce food wastage,” says Farida.

“Very often, some of them will share it among themselves or they constantly have delivery boys and see people sweeping the streets, and they will immediately go and offer it to them,” she says, adding that one must always respectfully ask the other person if they would like the leftovers.

So are these food tours put together? Through a lot of research, promises Farida, explaining that while as Dubai-bred kids, she and her sister already have a reservoir of favourite food spots they want to introduce the world to, they do crowdsource the names of restaurants as well. “Like the baklava shop [Al Samadi Sweets], I can’t even remember if my parents found it on their own, or someone told my parents about it. I know that from the mid 90s, we’ve been getting baklava from there. And then there are some restaurants that people recommend to us. Sometimes a place will open up in the neighborhood and we find the food is worth putting on the tour,” she says.

Currently, Frying Pan Adventures has two full-time staff members — Farida and Arwa — and about five freelance food guides. “That's what our team looks like, very small but very effective.”

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