Valentine's in true Kurdish style

Well, today is February 14th so Darrell wanted to take me out for dinner. We had heard about a Chinese restaurant in town and decided to try it out. First of all, the road leading to the restaurant was totally torn up so we had to climb over all kinds of debris just to reach the entrance. We climbed the stairs to find a very plain restaurant with filthy tablecloths (covered with thick plastic), zero atmosphere, men drinking lots of beer & liquor and loud Chinese music. We sat down and looked at the view outside our window; empty fruit boxes, laundry hanging, paint cans, stale bread. I just couldn't believe what I was experiencing. I tried to pull the soy sauce out of its holder but it was so crusty that I had to pry it out! So much for a romantic dinner but the food was actually quite good; better than any other we've tasted here. The owners of the restaurant all put out their own dinner and sat down to eat. When we were ready to go, we got up and stood at the counter waiting for someone to come and give us our bill. The whole experience was just so "Kurdish-like" and we laughed all the way home. Here's a picture of our table. It actually looks a lot nicer on the photo than in real life!