Not Rocket Science Three Forks makes big happy food for everyone BY SUZI STEFFEN You choose your protein. You choose your vegetables. You choose your condiments, and you get to say if you want little sprinkles on top at the end. Then the fast-moving people behind the counter get to work. Marc Gutshall, Three Forks' front manager/cook But this ain't no Subway: It's Three Forks, a made-to-order pan-Asian fresh food quick-wok-Mongolian-barbecue-style-except-with-homemade-sauces joint that's speedier than formal but more contemplative (and far, far better tasting) than fast food places. Owners Erika Condof and Jeremy Copperman started Three Forks as a food cart while they were undergrads, Condof getting chemistry and women's studies degrees from OSU and Copperman a degree in physics from the UO. They expanded to "the big events around town," Condof says, at the suggestion of another food cart owner. Since the beginning, Copperman and Condof have served vegans, vegetarians and carnivores alike. "It's not quite as much food for vegetarians, but it's really close!" Condof says. I definitely remember feeling a brand of vegetarian-specific relief seeing the Three Forks offerings like the famous "hippie bowl" at Alton Baker or Secret House. The hippie bowl mixes healthy grains and vegetables and insanely good sauces with the protein of your choice (I'm all about the soy, but I've watched meat-eaters rip into their meals with glee). So a storefront on Willamette, in the middle of fast food hell, gets a definite hurrah. The move to the permanent structure occurred in April 2006, Condof said, because she got pregnant, "so my medical school and Jeremy's Ph.D. in physics would have to wait for a while." Now they're expecting a second child, and Condof laughs at their logic about not going back to school. "I don't know what we were thinking — that the restaurant would be less work?" They put in long hours both at home and at the restaurant, but it's a labor of love. Along with a friend, Travis McMahon, Copperman created the menu from scratch. The sauces come from Copperman's background: His two grandmothers, one from Arkansas and one from Hawaii, inspired him to invent the barbeque sauce, a mix of tangy, sweet, sour and spicy that sparks up any of the food. When Condof was pregnant with their first child, she craved horseradish sauce, so Copperman came up with the creamy wasabi sauce. For those who aren't vegan, this lovely condiment rings up the right slow burn and quick fade while providing an underlying punch (see recipe). Nestled beside Baskin Robbins and Metropol, the space works partially because (ironically, Condof notes) it actually used to be a Subway. After looking at the menu pasted to the counter or above their heads, patrons choose a grill, a salad or both, and one of the nine employees — for instance, the pierced guy who bikes everywhere wearing his Three Forks sweatshirt ("Marc's great! He's been with us for a long time," Condof says) — places each person's food separately in a container. You want extra green onions on top? Cool. Want to mix the sauces? Weird, but OK. Absolutely no peppers for you? No problem. Portions that look normal behind the counter grow to gargantuan size by the time the food arrives, transformed, on its heavy plates. Almost everyone in the restaurant grows satiated somewhere a third to halfway through the meal. Luckily, take-home containers (of recyclable material, of course) sit on the counter beside the soda machine. Presto! Take a little of that Northwest pan-Asian freshness back to the fridge.   Little Italys | El Taco Express | Three Forks | Cheaper Eats | Super Natural Cooking | Wandering Goat | Hartwick's | Oakway Wine and Deli |