The Family Section

So as we’re approaching our weekend (Saturday – Wednesday work weeks in Saudi), we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner out in Jeddah. Plus, now that our abayas actually fit us, we’re kinda excited to put them on and hit the town. And every day, we get a little bit closer to mastering the hijab. We might actually have it down by the time we leave. Our first attempt was to go back to the restaurant that was on fire yesterday. Probably a bit premature. It was open and seemed to be operating normally, but after sitting down for 5 minutes, the lingering smell of smoke mixed in with incense was a bit overwhelming. So under the guidance of trusty jeddahfood.com, we wandered over to an area full of restaurants to find something else.

Among lots of options was an Indian restaurant that looked good. Like most restaurants in Jeddah, this one had a “family section” upstairs for both women dining alone and families. Single men are seated in a separate area (usually downstairs). We sat in a private booth, a partition went up to block us from sight of the rest of the restaurant, and we had some privacy to remove our hijabs and eat a little more comfortably. After ordering a ton of food, it was nice to be able to let loose (relatively speaking), have a LOT of laughs (thanks largely in part to Feng’s attempts to flag down a waiter from behind a partition) and enjoy that bit of freedom. Our only complaint – we couldn’t see what everyone else was ordering!