Love Illustrated is a HuffPost comic series that captures the realities of modern love.

Its easy to have romantic notions of what dating an aspiring chef might be like an elaborate, tasty dinner on the table by the time you get home from work every single night, for example. But, in truth, its not as glamorous as you might think.

Artist Dingding Hu , who lives in New York City and was raised in Chinas Szechuan province, came to realize this when she began dating her boyfriend five years ago.

When they met, he was in culinary school and was, as she puts it, really invested in his craftsmanship. So he offered to prepare Hu homemade khao soi a Thai coconut curry noodle soup for a special occasion: her birthday dinner. So thoughtful, right? Well, unfortunately, preparation took a bit longer than expected. Hu captured the experience in the form of a comic: