Food Porn: Le Diplomate

Certain holidays are associated with gluttony. Who am I kidding? Most of them are! You wear your comfy pants (as my nephew calls them) and you just resign yourself to overindulgence. Easter Sunday is like that for most people. Many people give up something for Lent (often alcohol or sweets or something challenging) and once Easter Sunday arrives, it's all you can do to pry them away from the bar. A few years ago, I attended Easter brunch with a friend who had given up cheese for Lent. She picked an Italian restaurant for our brunch and there was a table with chunks of parmesan cheese upon entering the restaurant. Coincidence? I think not. In honor of Easter brunches past, I had to order cheese. And let me tell you, I could lap up that truffle honey shown here all day. Damn. I digress...

As for me...I didn't give up anything. I do not celebrate the religious nature of Easter, but I do celebrate gluttony. So that's what I did this Easter Sunday.

My friend and I had made reservations at a French restaurant in DC that had opened about a year ago. Le Diplomate had been popular from the very start and we were excited to finally get around to checking it out. My friend Lauren was working there that day and her first recommendation, rather she insisted on this notion...was to get the bread basket. As you can see, the basket contained a wide variety of breads including one that contained anise and as my friend kept saying, "It's like eating a gum drop. Oh god, it's like a gum drop." Yeah, we enjoyed every bit of bread in that basket. Bunnies got it going on.

And when it comes to gluttony and holiday meals, you have to go big or go home. Which is what this Gruyere and Fresh Herb omelette, along with some amazing potatoes, was all about. Because once I made it through half of this, it was time to go home. And take a nap.

If you haven't been to Le Diplomate, please go. And enjoy the bread and cheese for me. Heaven. It's the kind of organized religion I can get behind.