True Love and Bouchon

If it's Thursday, I must be at my Modern Romance class and tonight's topic was true love.

Last week was about that giddy first kiss stage, but tonight we moved on to something more substantial, namely true love.

That stage where reality sets in, compromises are made and love deepens. You know.

Of course, this modern love class is all about architecture and tonight we covered 1930-1960.

After the exuberance of movements, manifestos and the shock of the new in the first 30 years of the last century, the next 30 were all about the socially-driven architecture of Europe rebuilding after the war versus the capitally-driven need for commerce in the U.S. (now there's a surprise).

Luckily for us, many European architects came here to share their talent on our soil.

From the first exhibit of modern architecture at the MOMA in 1932 to the flying exuberance of the TWA Terminal at JFK, this was the period when compromises were made to the realities of economics and site, while still creating landmark buildings.

You know, the Seagram's Building and the Empire State Building and although the Guggenheim Museum was built at the tail end of this period, it clearly represents no compromises with reality whatsoever, but such is its charm.

Tonight's after-school snack was at Bouchon, where I was joined by my extremely hungover friend.

 She was slow to order, but I dove right into their bar menu, a steal at only $4 per item.

I had the pork rillettes with toasted baguette slices and gherkins, along with the Portabello stuffed with ratatouille, spinach and Gruyere.

The rillettes, made with pork shoulder, was everything it should be: rich, fatty, salty and addictive.

The mushroom, which came with a side salad, was a perfect combination of veggies and cheese.

I definitely wasn't scoring any points with my arteries tonight, but, oh, was it good.

The owner surprised us with dessert, apparently thinking my friend could use some rich ice cream to coat her stomach and ease her malaise.

I don't expect she'll drink that many cosmos again in this lifetime.

Topics on the table tonight were stalking exes, overly late nights and Valentine's Day plans and even a hungover friend has strong thoughts on all three.

What we didn't get around to discussing tonight was true love, despite my new-found knowledge on the subject.

No need to jump the gun; I'm still processing what I learned last week about the first kiss stage and all the ensuing giddiness.

Twitterpation, if you will.

That's more than enough to process for the time being.