Friends are best paired with food and dance

To celebrate our friend who was leaving the U.S. for 2 years to work in Beijing, we ate.

The venue was Smoke n Barrel, and it turned out to be a good bet, even as a dark horse candidate.

While there was this meat-stravaganza below to go into raptures over (as Jess did, with her high-powered camera flash), what got me was the dessert (duh): Bacon. Maple. Creme Brulee.

No photo evidence exists of this marvel because it was scarfed down so rapidly, but it was divine- salty + sweet, but also a mild creaminess contributing from both sides. Happy marriage, indeed.

A few days later, still celebrating the creme brulee, we blew the roof off of Saint-Ex, a great place for tasty cocktails, mediocre service, and a pretty good mix of tunes.

We found out that Whitney Houston had just died, but the DJ made no move of having heard the news. We danced on, unfazed. This was the last night, it had better be good!

My cast made its final appearance- here! photo evidence!- as we danced our tootsies off. Funnily enough, I came across a guy who had a mini-version of my cast on his wrist. We cast-bumped. Actually I just hope I didn't clock anybody accidentally.

We shimmied as fast as we could through the falling snow to this place, the amazing gas-station-cum-late-night-diner that Jess recommended, and boy, was she right. Fast Gourmet is its name, and way-above-average late night (read: bad for you) snack food is its game. I had the beer-battered eggplant. Yes, really. Check out the Chivito; word on the street is it rocks.

All in all, an amazing evening with great peeps.

Happy trails, Girl!