Chocolate & Zucchini Party

Right now I'm in Venice, but prior to this I had a long, long week of cooking and eating, eating and cooking, and not much sleep. On Wednesday night, Christine and I met up at L'Homme Tranquille, a tiny, adorable restaurant in Montmartre, where Clotilde of Chocolate & Zucchini was throwing an anniversary party for her blog.

The room was STUFFED with jolly types of all sorts; so stuffed, in fact, that Christine and I spent most of the night out on the street with the overflow crowd. It was great fun to watch people walk by and and stop dead when they saw the party, salivating over our food and wondering whether they too could join in the fun (Uh, no). I hardly need say it, but dinner was excellent. You can read Clotilde's blog for an account of the menu, but allow me to note that the lamb and apricot tagine with couscous was sublime. My new goal is to master this dish.

I have no pictures, but you can catch a blurry glimpse of me in the photos on Clotilde's site. I'm in the picture that's second from the left, with a big goofy grin on my face (and a glass of wine, natch!).

When I got home at one in the morning, I looked at the bags under my eyes and thought, "Honestly, I don't know how many more of these marathon French eating experiences I can take."

Laughing my preposterousness, I tumbled into bed.