Meet Dubai’s favourite food storyteller: From walking tours to YouTube show celebrating UAE’s untold flavours

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 flavor 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. 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 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

Ahmed explains, “While it’s filmed in the UAE, it’s made for a global audience: travelers curious about the city, or discerning eaters who care more about culture. Less food reviews, more decoding of Dubai’s foodways, the kind only those who've lived here for decades really know.”

Listening to her, it’s clear this show was destined to happen. Her passion for food shines through, as she celebrates how food connects people and shares the rich history behind each dish.

Just like her vibrant food tours, she takes us on a little tour through her life, and how she became the food storyteller of UAE.

Everything that Ahmed says, is practically a story in itself.

In 1989, she moved with her family to Dubai, where they were the first tenants living at an Al Rigga Road apartment. 37 years later, her parents still live in the same building. “My mum is a clinical dietitian and nutritionist, and so probably the food love comes from that side,” adds Ahmed. Recalling a childhood filled with love and simple food, she says there were a handful of dining spots, and limited options. The Middle Eastern influence was strong and reflected in the food, for instance Palestinian spots serving falafels. It was a time when even the hummus had its own spin. Instead of chickpeas and tahini, the hummus was topped with a punchy green sauce made with bell peppers, chili, lemon juice, and garlic.

In this atmosphere of food, Ahmed grew up. Food was all around her, from these little shops to what they cooked at home. It’s these memories that became the foundation for her passion, years on.

Later, she moved to the US for her education. Looking for ways to get back the feeling of warm, homecooked food, she started cooking at the age of 19, every night and serving food in thalis outside her dormitory.  As Ahmed says, brimming with nostalgia, there was just something fulfilling and cooking a pot of dal. That simple act of cooking sparked different food journeys—especially during her three years in New York, where every meal became an adventure. “It was a food lovers paradise,” she says.

As she explains, you learn about a place through its food. You learn as you walk through streets, stalls, the seemingly obscure shops that have reams of history to share. And, as Ahmed says, every meal was an opportunity.

With a different kind food for thought, she returned to UAE. But UAE was a lot more different than she remembered: It was bustling, busy and the culinary scene was glitzy, enticing and glamorous.

But what about the unassuming joints tucked in old corners of the city?

At first, she started working at her father’s business in 2010 and was busy with her 9-5, while blogging about food. The blog’s name itself, was symbolic of Ahmed’s wit, charm and love for food and was named I live in a Frying Pan. And, as she began to reconnect more with Dubai.

While Dubai’s culinary boom was undoubtedly astronomical, the real heart lay in its quiet, often overlooked neighbourhoods.In 2012, the idea of a food tour company began to cook.

And by 2013, along with her sister, Farida, they launched the Frying Pan Adventures, which is a tour company, that takes around 12-14 people into the real heart of Dubai; the old unpolished streets, where a story lurks in each small shop. From Iranian to Emirati, the Ahmed sisters show their astonished audience the carefully hidden food joints, and the stories of the people behind those dishes.

As Ahmed says, whenever she steps out, secret doors open. In her many adventures, she has found an Emirati family operating out of a food truck. In other moments, she has discovered a Cantonese chef who left a high-end restaurant and corporate kitchen and opened his own restaurant.

The storytelling adventures are just beginning. As Ditch the Silver continues to enthrall audience with already 45 episodes in on YouTube, as well as on Emirates Inflight and soon on OSN and OSN+, Ahmed is ready to show the world more of what they haven’t seen. Stories found in food trucks, or in an Omani barbecue.

She keeps hunting for stories, but sometimes, the stories just find her.