Hotel Haafiz

We’ve been here in Adajan for some years now, tucked away near the 3rd Cross in the 2nd Stage area. It’s not a fancy place with big neon lights or anything like that. We just have some simple tables and chairs and a kitchen that stays pretty hot all through the day. The morning usually starts with the smell of onions frying and the sound of the big tea kettle whistling on the stove. I usually check the stock first thing to see what we ran out of the night before. Sometimes the delivery guy is late with the vegetables and I have to wait around by the back door, just looking at the alley. The floor has some small cracks near the entrance that I keep meaning to fix, but things stay so busy I never get around to it. Customers don’t seem to care much about the floor as long as the food is ready when they are hungry. It gets really crowded during the lunch hour. You can hear the plates clattering and people talking over each other about their work. I try to keep the fans going at full speed but in the middle of summer it doesn't do much for the heat. By the evening, the air finally cools down a bit and things get much slower. I sit near the counter and watch the traffic go by on the street. It’s a lot of work, staying on your feet all day, but it’s what we do.