Food noise, explained. Other posts to come, intermittently.

As I've been invested in recording my carbohydrates since May 6 so that I will have a better hemoglobin A-1C test result on July 28, I've come to notice something running in the back of my mind, now and then, no matter what I happen to be doing or where I might be.

Monday, June 27, my brain sent me what I will now use to identify this phenomenon. I felt surprised, then happy with the term. Food noise.

Here's my explanation of food noise. I sit at work involved with my daily tasks and performing them spot on. As the day progresses, I have counted my breakfast foods--calories, fat, carbohydrates, protein--on the iPhone app I use, MyPlate, and the water that I've had with breakfast. I've walked with my iPhone on my person or in my shoulder bag so that the health app that came with it counts my steps. Those steps are deducted from the calories I consume from my allowed calorie goal for the day--the app is tuned to calories but thankfully fits in with my goal of not becoming a diabetic, therefore the carb counting. Throughout the day, I enter foods eaten at lunch, dinner, snack (if any), and more water.

I do not for the most part feel unsatisfied at any particular meal or moment. I have found it exciting to watch those steps impact those calories. In this way, the app encourages me to continue my efforts. I have shed pounds. I have increased stamina.

Yet, unbidden at any given moment, in the back of my mind, food such as you see in this photo--duck confit, gnocchi, fava beans from 3 Doors Down Cafe in a photo that I took June 17, 2011--appears. I feel my teeth biting into the meaty duck, the satisfyingly dense gnocchi, the al dente fava beans. I don't taste any of these, I feel them. I keep right on working, undeterred by the food noise which so far has not manifested itself in the form of aggravating craving. I think the fact that I easily keep on with my regular activities made the term food noise pop into my mind because, for me, it is kin to white noise, as in this definition--a steady, unvarying, unobtrusive sound, as an electronically produced drone or the sound of rain, used to mask or obliterate unwanted sounds.

Not that my food noise is obliterating anything unwanted. I have, in fact, found food noise to be a comfort. By the way, it is not always prepared by professionals. Sometimes, it is something that I myself have cooked. More posts to come, if I have the appropriate photo on hand.

I'm back. Here are Friday's 3 Doors Down Cafe delicious dining and drinking delights.

Since Thursday, June 9, I've been either taking lots of photos, uploading lots of photos, and/or having a time with Flickr with lots of photos, not a totally horrible time with Flickr, but not the most fun I've ever had either. Now things appear to have come around to where I want and need them. Thank goodness.

I was hungry, thirsty, tired when I arrived. I left mellow, satisfied, ready to make it through shopping at Freddy's and then riding the bus on home with my rolling black bag stuffed with necessities like milk and saltines and such.

Here you can see why I left in grand state of existence.

Rhubarb Rita: Blue Agave Tequila, LIme, Lemon Juices, Rhubarb Syrup & Orange Liqueur. This was SO good that I really, really wanted a second one, but I knew I needed, above all desire, to be sure-footed while shopping. I only drank the one.


First appetizer: fromage de chevre mini pyramid, roasted beets, toast points. I smelled the toast when the plate was set down on the table, that's how quick the appetizer made it to me. Imminently spreadable cheese, which is, according to the menu, a classic French crumbly ash-covered goat cheese. Ash-covered? Didn't taste anything but smooth, creamy goat cheese. Thank goodness for goats and their milk and folks willing to make cheese with it. That cheese, combined with the sweetness of the roasted beets and the crispy, easily bitten and chewed toast--my, my. I am a blessed woman. Still wondering about the ash, though, so here's what I found at artisanalcheese dot com: Ash-Coated Cheese--Many goat cheeses, or chevres, are coated with a sprinkle of ash. Originally, the ash often came from oak charcoal, as was the tradition of cheeses from France's Loire Valley. Today, a recognized food grade activated charcoal ash is used which is sometimes salted and generally tasteless. The ash is helpful in mellowing the acidity to promote the affinage and produce a more delectable cheese. It also helps make the cheese surface more hospitable to the growth of molds that add to the complexity of the overall flavor.


Second appetizer: Potato gnocchi, Fava beans, duck confit, chicken stock with olive oil, and sauteed spring onion. Here's the back story: At lunch I called my older son Lamont who is sous chef at 3DD and asked, "Is duck confit on the menu tonight?" Since he is off on Thursdays, he wasn't sure but said there was a good chance that it would be since it had been part of a "3 for $21" special currently running at 3DD. (More about that below--don't miss it.) Oh, joy! Oh, boy! He was right. Suffice it to say that by the time I had finished, that bread to the left of the photo had helped me completely clean the entire bowl. Crunchy skin, meaty flesh, combined with the plump gnocchi and the dense Fava beans. Every morsel satisfied me more than the one before. To tell you the truth, I wasn't one bit sad when I had finished because it was perfect in proportion. Oh, and you can see there in the background that I didn't leave any of my first appetizer, either.

Here's the promised info about the "3 for $21"

On the menu at 3 Doors Down Cafe, SE 37th and Hawthorne

From Friday night and still on the menu in much the same fashion: Duck confit, roasted pork belly, roasted carrot, roasted shallot, cannellini beans, bread crumbs. Sprinkled on the duck and pork, Maldon Sea Salt Flakes. A fine mixture of textures and flavors for your dining enjoyment.

Cocktail, appetizer, salad--my Friday night at 3 Doors Down Cafe

Blackberry Daiquiri: blackberry puree, rum, orange liqueur and lime juice. Yummy summer libation.


Appetizer: Miticrema fresh sheep's milk cheese (Montesinos, Spain), grilled figs, 30-year-old balsamic vinegar, crackers. Cheese note on the menu: cream-cheese-like consistency, salty, acidic, creamy finish) Perfect combination, the cheese, as noted, and the lush, juicy fig bits, on top of a firm yet crispy cracker that held up well to having cheese spread on it before disappearing bite by bite. (I took this photo right at the bar where I sit on Friday after work, with my friend Richard holding up the huge white cloth napkin to my right as a reflector for the sunlight coming in through the windows from the left. I think it turned out just like I wanted it.)


Salad: duck confit, roasted beets, mache and creamy sheep's milk cheese. I had the same salad on Sunday, August 15, and well remembered the flavors and textures, the utter meatiness of the duck, my satisfaction doubled when my friend Danielle decided not to eat her duck confit, just her beets, mache and cheese. Yet, even though I only had the one duck leg Friday night, it's crispy skin and juicy meat demolished that memory, overtaking my senses. Who needs two duck legs when you've got one perfect leg to devour?

Three Doors Down Cafe, A Fine Food and Drink Series, No. 3

Poiré Authentique, pear cider from Eric Bordelet, a delightfully fresh cider. Matt told me that it's rare and unforgettable, both true descriptors. You can see SE 37th reflected in its golden self.


Here it is, right after being poured. I read this about it online "...a traditionally off-dry, sparkling style ... made from three hundred year-old pear trees. These sixty foot high trees have never seen one bit of chemical treatment during their long lives and produce absolutely marvelous fruit with which to work. Monsieur Bordelet makes from them a brilliant sparkling cider: one that has great complexity, refined bubbles, a deep underlying minerality, with excellent length and cut on the finish." I don't know what some of that means, but I did see bubbles coming up from the bottom center of the glass for quite some time, and it did taste good.


Bibb lettuce, chives, bacon in a creamy roasted garlic aioli dressing--this crispy, perfectly cold salad makes me happy. And it's not just because it's shape reminds me of a ruffled party dress. It tastes so good!


The special--house-made cavatelli, duck confit, delicata squash, and arugula. Lamont thinks it's so neat that I eat duck confit as often as possible at 3DD, and I never even knew what it was before! You see, I had never eaten duck until I moved to Portland. Now, if it's on the menu at Three Doors Down, I get an immediate memory of that earthy, meaty taste as soon as I read the word. So I order it and enjoy it, time after time.

Three Doors Down Cafe, A Fine Food and Drink Series, No. 2

My last New-fangled Old-fashioned, and maybe the last of the season--fresh cherries will not longer be available according to bartender extraordinaire Matt. I still believe that this drink can heal you of what ever is ailing you!


Duck confit, arugula, manchego cheese, Italian plum preserves, bruschetta--an appetizer replete with a meaty sweetness and a crusty crispness. Can you tell how thinly the manchego is sliced? I could see the arugula through it!


Beef, pork and Arborio stuffed chard, baked in a tomato sauce--talk about your perfectly matched tastes and textures! Let me just say that if you've been craving stuffed cabbage or stuffed grape leaves, you'd get over that craving with the first bite of this stuffed chard. I savored each bite, using that sharp, sharp knife you see beside the NFOF to cut thin slices, making sure I got plenty of the tomato concoction--I think I see onion in there, too, but I forgot to ask.