I had a fantastic preview dinner at John Gorham’s Mediterranean Exploration Company. They have their soft opening next week, starting July 16. Go. Bring friends so you can sample as many dishes as possible. I was really pleased to learn that they will be taking reservations. I’m just not an easy-breezy person who can plan for friends to arrive from all points of the city and not get a seat for two hours. Much as I love Gorham’s Toro Bravo, that keeps me from going back. And I’ve completely written off ever going to Ox.

The food – read my review at Examiner.com, with lots of photos. It’s hard to choose a favorite dish. But if they end up on the menu, don’t miss the radicchio, lamb ragu and lamb chop. Order the bread. Order lots of the bread to sop up the great sauces.

It will also be a very noisy place, so don’t plan any intimate conversations. You will be yelling in each others’ ears rather than whispering sweet nothings. But much as I prefer a quieter setting, I will happily endure this for the fantastic food at MEC.

Review and Photos

Genoa is a venerable outpost of fine dining in Portland. Their usual tasting menu serves up five courses for $70. I hadn’t yet had the chance to dine there since Jake Martin took up the chef’s apron, following in the footsteps of chefs such as Cathy Whims and David Anderson. The Portland Dining Month deal was the perfect opportunity.

To keep the options simple, you designate with your reservation if you will be taking the dining month deal. Then you have a choice between a 3-course Traditional Menu and a 3-Course Vegetarian Menu. Our table of four had two of each. Bread and house-made butter are a $3 add-on (they brought enough for the whole table for that price). The optional wine pairing is $18 for three generous half-glasses, one paired to each course.

Antipasti course traditional: thinly sliced steak, arugula, parmesan antipasti. The vegetarian composition was of beets, avocado espuma and pistachio, which our tasters thought was even better.

Primi course traditional: Cappellini pasta made with smoked eggs and smoked flour, with smoked clams and shaved cod “chorizo” on top and espelette jus. It was simply delicious. It was also artfully arranged to look like a crustacean. I would have gladly eaten a giant bowl of this. The vegetarian dish was a risotto with green garlic and meyer lemon.

Secondi course traditional: roasted duck breast with pancetta and apple. Although the duck breast was deep red within, it was perfectly roasted. I loved every bite. The vegetarian dish was caramelized caulifower, truffle, brown butter and duck egg.

Desserts were optional and they asked you to order it with your other courses. One of our number had the poached pear.

I enjoyed the wine pairing.

It was a delightful meal and showed that Genoa remains a great choice for an “occasion” dinner. We four ladies enjoyed the chance to dress up and be served with the whole white-tablecloth-and-crumber ambiance. While Genoa is dress-up worthy, I would say the service is still friendly and un-stuffy, while being very knowledgeable. It was a much more relaxed ambiance than I experienced at Ruth’s Chris Steak House last week, which was simply too crowded and the servers seemed a little harried.

Genoa Restaurant, 2832 SE Belmont St, Portland, Oregon 97214.

By now, if you haven’t heard the story of Lux the Cat, you’ve been off the grid for over a week. Baby attacks cat, cat attacks baby, daddy kicks cat, cat goes postal and corners the whole family so they have to call 911 to be rescued. Cat goes to shelter and Cat Whisperer is coming to get everybody calmed down.

I was part of a similar but less-dramatic story. When my husband finally agreed that we could get a cat, within 8 hours I had a cat delivered to my house. Alia had been owned by a couple who had a baby. When Alia attacked the baby, she got sent to live with grandma. Poor Alia was used to being an indoors cat and now her life was moping around the windows hoping to be let in. She arrived at our house in a basket and as soon as the lid was opened, she calmly stepped out, found a cozy corner and fell asleep. She was a big cat, over 15 pounds. She was a long-haired half-Siamese. After adapting to us in about 30 seconds, she spend the next several years giving us love and attention. We named her Scooter because we had to scoot her out of whatever chair she was occupying if we wanted a seat. No problem, she was in our lap seconds later.

While Scooter was never aggressive with us, she did hide and quake in fear whenever a child visited our house. It was obvious she had been punished for being around children, and she never forgot.

Lux’s story could have a similar happy ending. I think the best thing would be for her to go to a calm household without children, where she was the only pet.

After Scooter, we had a cat-free period until my hairdresser insisted that Hershey go home with me. My hairdresser had five children, two dogs and other pets. The dogs had been harassing Hershey and even broken her tail. Luckily, her owner recognized that my home would be a nice, calm place where she would be happy and enrich our lives. Hershey was queen of our roost for the rest of her life.

I think our next cat will come into our lives the same way. I know there are thousands who would love to rescue Lux into a nice calm household.

While kittens are cute, I prefer to adopt an adult cat. They may have some violence in their past, but in a calm household they can flourish.