Iftar in arabic means breakfast. No, not our usual breakfast that we do in the morning but breaking the fast. It means after their last prayer they do after 6 in the evening. On the other hand, Sahur is a feast before taking the fast. They usually celebrate it before 3 am. That's what I eavesdropped from my officemates. I don't really ask them because I don't understand their explanations. :)
Anyway, awhile ago, my officemates and I celebrated Iftar in one Hotel here in Doha. I believe it was called Doha Seef Hotel. Please don't tell me what Seef means. Our manager, by the way, treated us for dinner today. Cool,huh? The meeting place was in the office at 5 o' clock in the afternoon so I was already there at 4:55 PM. I'm not Filipino so I'm really not into Filipino Time. Unfortunately, they were still not there. Moreover, our President was still there working even though our office hours ends at 2:30 pm. Running up the stairs, he caught a glimpse on me and asked why am I still here. I then told him I forgot something. Good thing he already went out. I was just there on my workplace waiting for them...
...for an hour. It was now 6 o' clock and still there was no sign of them even one. Finally, my boss appeared. Thank you because I'm already starving. It turns out that we still have to wait for one officemate. Darn! I am so hungry I could eat mutton which I really hate. A group of 4 were now already 6 since her son went tagging along plus one officemate. We went there and took pictures and went upstairs. Oh, I wasn't with them on the same elevator because I was too heavy and the lift beeped. So i had to ride another one. going to the...
...eleventh floor. Whoa. Dimmed yellow lights, folded napkins, waitresses and a buffet table met me when the doors of the elevator opened. Until now, I am really fascinated on how they fold their napkins into beautiful shapes and other sizes. So I took out my camera and went clicking away. The location and the architecture of the place left me breathless that by looking at it, my hunger was already satisfied. After that, the waitress then led us to the buffet table. We got our plates and they went to the main course while I went straight to desserts. Hello, diabetes.
We ate, talked, ate again, talked again but I still admired how they did with the napkins. My favorite meal was the sauteed potatoes which was really a good substitute for rice and the beef stew which was really very hard to bite but it was quite good. Over all, the the food was so-so but the location and the preparations were aesthetically beautiful...especially the folded napkins. :)
This will be my first and last Iftar. Thanks, Boss.
Paul
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