March memories, 2008, with swell food, my sons, and my little Mama.

Lamont got invited to participate in the Chef's Blackbox Competition, and he asked his brother Leland to be his assistant--they've worked together many years at the same restaurant, several ones, in fact, starting in Jackson, Mississippi, and ending up here in Portland, Oregon, at 3 Doors Down Cafe where they both worked in 2008. Decision-making time meant looking around at what's available and making notes for a three-course menu. What to select from the ingredients to prepare dishes for the judges at the Taste of Tillamook competition held March 15, 2008, in Tillamook, Oregon. That's Lamont on the right, Leland on the left. The secret ingredients, yet to be revealed.



Available produce, fruit, spices. Lamont selected prawns and cod from the secret ingredients--I don't remember what else was available, nor do I remember what the competing chef chose. The teams had one hour to prep and cook their three dishes.



Leland works on leeks; Lamont works on salsa verde.



Leland works on fennel; Lamont works on salsa verde.



Leland and the mandoline slicer, part of prepping for the salad.



Prep, an important and on-going step to creating tasty plates.



Leland and the spinach. I'm not sure what Lamont is opening in this photo.



Busy cook.



Left hands.



Still busy cook.



Right hands.





Memorable appetizer--sautéed prawns (a secret ingredient), freshly made salsa verde, and sautéed leeks with bacon.



Memorable salad--quarter-sized cucumber slices surround a mound of match-stick-sliced fennel and Granny Smith apple, topped with paper-thin slices of red onion.



Memorable entree--pan-roasted cod (a secret ingredient), spinach sautéed with garlic and capers, and roasted fingerling potatoes.



The five judges.



Getting up close and personal with the judges. Those extra people also bid on plates and ate the ones prepared by the other chef. More about Lamont and Leland's plates later.



A bit more with the judges.



My little Mama, smiling her special smile, enjoying this time with my sons and me just as much as we enjoyed it and being with her.



In review, the requirements were to make three demonstration dishes, using a different secret ingredient in two of those dishes, then prepare more of the same for the five judges to taste. At the end of an intense hour for the four cooks, Mama and I won the bidding competition for the demo dishes (a fundraiser for Food Safety in Tillamook County) and got to pick which chef's dishes we wanted to eat. That's a no brainer, right. While their food was delicious--we cleaned the plates in no time--the judges made the other guy the winner by 11 points.



And here they are, the two most important men in my life, Leland and Lamont, one-hundred-per-cent their father's sons.

Our Friday, August 19, dinner at 3 Doors Down Cafe

Milton, Kay and I rode the bus to the restaurant for dinner. We were tired from all of our sight-seeing fun and very hungry. Leland joined us there, and Lamont was in the kitchen, cooking away--the only way it would have been better would be to have Kailey and my brother Howard and his wife Vanessa up from Mississippi with us. Turns out that's for another post.

We four shared the first appetizer: Grilled peaches topped with shredded duck made special for us by my older son, sous chef Lamont


Leland and Milton shared this appetizer: Steamer clams, pan-steamed with white wine, basil, garlic & parmesan cheese


Kay and I shared the two salads.
Organic greens, raspberry poppy seed vinaigrette, hard cheese & toasted almonds


Panko-crusted fried eggplant with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella


Milton and Kay each had this entree: Grilled Painted Hills flat iron steak, potato pave, Romano beans, and roasted garlic butter


My entree, the evening's special: Braised rabbit with house-made capellini pasta and mushrooms, onion and maybe bits of bacon--I forgot to ask.


Leland's entree was the house-made ricotta cheese cavatelli pasta with pork and beef sugo. The photo did not turn out very well, but it's a wonderful dish. I've had it a time or two.

Milton, Kay and I decided on dessert--we have our favorites from the dessert menu at 3 Doors Down.

Kay's banana cream pie


Milton's bread pudding


My bocca negra

Friday evening at 3 Doors Down Cafe

Prickly Pear Margarita, so smooth, barely sweet, totally refreshing


Spring panzanella salad of asparagus tips, English peas, radishes, fried croutons, pureed almond and red wine vinaigrette, perfectly textured, a real taste of spring

Sarah from work and I stopped by for a cocktail and a bite to eat before going to the Hollywood Theater to see a movie. Besides each of us enjoying the Prickly Pear Margarita, we shared the salad, and two appetizers: fried risotto & parmesan arancini with Mama Lil's Hungarian pepper aioli and seared sea scallops, warm romesco and micro greens.

Perfect, sun-warmed dining followed by another side of life, no less satisfying in all of its dark, complex, emotional morality--director Cary Fukunaga's version of "Jane Eyre."

Quite the evening out.

Y'all hungry? Let's go to 3 Doors Down Cafe, SE 37th and SE Hawthorne

What I had on Friday, August 7, 2009


Appetizer: Pan-seared sea scallops, sauteed peaches, honey basil cream sauce.


Salad: Iceberg lettuce wedge with cashel blue cheese dressing (and a sweet and crunch giant onion ring that I think Lamont cooked)


Cocktail: My first ever dirty martini