I'm Tariq — I'll Take You to Old Dubai, the Spice Souq, and the Restaurants That Fed This City Before the Towers

My name is Tariq and my family has been in Dubai for four generations. The Dubai that visitors see — the towers, the malls, the artificial islands — is 30 years old. The real city is in Deira: the spice souq that has operated on the creek since the 1830s, the dhow wharfage where wooden cargo boats from India, Pakistan and Iran still unload, the fish market that opens at 5am, and the Baniyas Road restaurants that have been feeding the city's South Asian workforce since the 1960s with biryani, roti, and dal that is as good as anything in Karachi. I take groups through Deira by abra (water taxi) and on foot: the spice souq, the gold souq, the fish market, and lunch at an Indian restaurant on Baniyas Road where the plate arrives piled and costs almost nothing.