Yesterday, Tal reminded me about Chocolate & Zucchini, which is probably the ur–food blog, at least in the subcategory of food blogs operated by winsome, sincere lasses, as opposed to those narrated by big, burly lawyer-men.

Now, I haven’t read it much, but I kinda hate C&Z. Every time I click over to it, Mlle Clotilde is doing something delightfully meticulous and sincere and winsome, and then taking a beautiful photo of it. And she has this slightly artificial way of writing that I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s just that she never says fuck?

The other thing that dismays me about C&Z is its name: When I see the words chocolate and zucchini together, all I ever think of is zucchini-chocolate cake. Yes, it’s a real thing. And no, it’s not disgusting. It is a proud relic of hippie ’70s thrift, a byproduct of late summer, when the fat zucchini vines, seemingly the only thing that flourished in New Mexico gardens, would be bursting with these monstrous squash, at least as big as your forearm. Whatever you couldn’t palm off on your neighbor–well, presto, into a cake it goes. The cake is pretty moist, and kinda vegetable-y. And don’t worry—all the chocolate frosting cancels out any health benefits from the zucch.

But Mlle Clotilde is French, so to her, chocolate and zucchini represent twin poles of food experience, or something abstract like that, and then some commenter has the gall to write:

Of course, chocolate and zucchini, when you come to think of it, really do not fit together for any civilized recipe – could that be called a culinary faux pas?”

“Civilized.” Harrumph. Just because I grew up in a place where other kids thought we might not have running water.

Anyway, as an antidote to all this ridiculous preciousness (see also C&Z’s “About” page, which is ardent and lovely, but provokes a terrible snarl in me on a bad day) I direct you to a hilarious thread on eGullet about vile-looking food. I didn’t realize people were so compelled to photograph their dinners that they even took pics of the ones that look like crap on a plate. Anyway, all the failed food styling is very encouraging to see, and a little dose of reality that a lot of food bloggers don’t seem to dwell in.