Southern Pacific

(valentine's weekend. number 14)

We had some guests in town for this one, which was very exciting. Faith Griffiths, who does this thing (The Jubilee Collective) and has this band (Dana & Faith), had been doing an internship down in Eugene. So she came up with the friends she's been living with and our old pal Russell, who has helped with sporadic Secret Restaurant events before. Faith made the cake and Russ made the biscuits & the cookies– they both helped enormously with prep work.

Magyar Vacsora

[mid january. number 13.]

This Hungarian-themed Secret Restaurant was, building upon our New Year's feast, another nostalgia trip, dating all the way back to the first dinner Lucas and I ever cooked together. We had both moved up to Portland, having been relatively out of touch for a while (but we've known each other since we were 11), and decided to cook dinner one night in November. At the grocery store we picked an exotic and inaccessible sounding cuisine to tackle: Hungarian.

I grew up stopping at Novak's Hungarian Restaurant (one of the only things to experience in Albany, OR) on the way to and from Portland and Eugene. Because of this tradition, I've known a lot of this food since I was a toddler. When I got into The Moosewood Cookbook, I noticed that a lot of the recipes were based on Hungarian dishes. I favored those recipes in cooking big dinners at my college co-op house, but had never made a concerted effort to make any all Hungarian dinners, until that night in November of '09. At that first dinner with Lucas something magical happened, which has sparked this entire project.

Anniversary

(new year's eve. number 12.)

This dinner was the 1 year anniversary for Secret Restaurant Portland.

We spent the first part of last year holding practice dinners that were smaller and more frequent than they are today, and we didn't officially "open" until spring (the first dinner documented on this blog). But the first time that Lucas and I ever cooked together for guests was new year's eve 2009/2010.

We made a dinner very close to the one you'll see below. It was a sort of Italian-inspired Northwest winter meal. We had an antipasto with roasted garbanzo beans and chard. We had bread with roasted garlic. We had salmon. We had gnocci with this nutty olive sauce, we had biscotti and coffee for dessert. Some of the guests for the anniversary were there for the original, and it was really fun to hear their reactions to our progress.

Lucas once joked "maybe someday we'll get to the point where you start doing ridiculous shit like letterpress menus." So I took that as a cue and I hand set type and letterpress printed the menus.

Pilgrims in Portland

(late november. number 11.)

We held a gathering of friends to share Thanksgiving food, five days before the actual holiday. We were able to practice some of the dishes, take some pressure off from the usual Secret Restaurant routine, and celebrate the season/each other's company.

We had no dining table at the time (the housemate switch mentioned in the Pizza entry), so the food was served buffet style on all the tables from around the house.

Secret Pizza

(mid november. number 10)

We took an enforced hiatus from Secret Restaurant-ing in October, for a multitude of reasons. We enjoyed making small autumnal dinners like savory pies and soups, and soaking up the odd amount of sun still left in Portland. We also had no dining table, or seating, or kitchen utensils, or glasses, or white china, or silverware, due to a roommate switcheroo.

November came, along with the rain, and we still didn't have a proper table. But we decided create a meal that didn't really require one! PIZZA SLAM. We hit up Portland Farmer's Market one last time before the season concluded, and crafted almost all toppings/sauces from what we found there.

We brought out pies two-at-a-time, every 20 minutes or so, for a couple of hours. There was an ongoing came of Pictionary between the pies.

Harvest Moon

(late september. number 9)

This Secret Restaurant was a simple celebration of the beginning of Fall– the days had been unusually hot again, but the afternoon turned blustery as we started to cook. The moon loomed high, the Neil Young album was slapped into the tape deck, and we all toasted to the harvest time.

A Pastoral Brunch

(labor day weekend. number 8.)

food:

Cher Mikkola Cream Scones

A famous recipe from the mother of Secret Restaurant close-associate and often ice cream maker/auxilary baker/shopping helper Aria, adapted to perfection over the years. Recreated here and topped with fresh blackberry compote. Served with local and organic watermelon, pears, strawberries. English Stilton cheese.

Roasted Potatoes De Provence

Pink-centered red fingerling potatoes, roasted with whole cloves of fresh garlic and chopped golden beets. Tossed with mexican rock sea salt, hydrated red rose and hibiscus flowers. Topped with a pureed spinach sauce, made with white onion, shallots, garlic, basil, and lavender. Served on rainbow chard leaves.

Home-made brioche with home-made sweet cream butter and a slice of yellow heirloom tomato.

Fluffy Egg Tartlets

Golden Oregon Wild Chanterelle Mushroom Soufflé (from farm fresh, market eggs) in a rosemary whole wheat pie crust, topped with a Stilton-infused Irish butter hollandaise sauce. Dusted with grated Italian black truffle and lavender flowers. Garnished with Ficoîde Glaciele– "an unusual French green. Delicate texture & lemony, salty taste."

Fried green heirloom tomatoes with a French Batard breading.

drink:

Bloody Mary's

Fresh heirloom tomato juice, hot peppers, organic bottled tomato juice, house-pickled pickles, rainbow chard stocks, Russian potato vodka, and plenty o' secrets. Sel gris rim.

Two Featured Coffees:

from Olympia Coffee Roasting Co., Olympia, WA

Guatemala Huehuetenange CODECH Cooperative. The rather accurate description from Olympia Coffee Roasing Co.'s website: "Aromas of ripe fruit and brown sugar perfume the sweet tangy acidity and well- structured body. Heady flavors of honey, strawberry, and orange are reminiscent of baked summer pastries."

from Espresso Roma Café, Eugene, OR

A mysterious bean known to many friends and acquaintances who have spent much time in Eugene, Oregon. My best answer to the often-asked question "how the hell do they make this midnight mind-slam coffee?" is that it is probably Mexican beans, done in a vienna roast and brewed very strongly. We decided to serve this coffee as a distinct contrast to the Guatemalan, and tried to recreate the intensity of the Roma experience with each cup.