Clyde Common

Finally we made it to Clyde Common, one of the very best restaurants in Portland and one of the very Portland restaurants.

The main space on the first floor offers communal seating only. Upstairs is where you can find a few private tables. We were taking a friend from out of town there, so we went upstairs. That also gave us a view of the entire space including the open kitchen.

The menu is seasonal. But certain popular items stay on the menu for a long time. Someone had recommended "prosciutto wrapped trout" a few months back and it's available still. We got that, along with a pasta dish (tagliatelle with tomatoes, onion, basil and orange) and a duck dish.

the pasta to die for

The trout was amazing. It came with a sunny side egg on top and creamy chanterelle sauce. The fish is stuffed with some sort of green, parsley perhaps. It tasted as good as it looked. The prosciutto was crispy on the outside, contrasting the tender flesh of the fish. This whole thing could only be topped by the pasta dish our guest ordered. Don't let the simple description fool you. This tagliatelle packs so much flavor that I could not believe that there were only five ingredient in it. I would go back to Clyde Common any day just for the pasta.

The duck dish was good, but not overwhelmingly impressive like the other two.

I might have gotten ahead of myself a bit. Before all the entrees, we were served some house-made focaccia with olive oil. This is another thing that would keep me coming back. This place knows how to make carbs right. The two appetizers we got were pretty good. The simple tomato salad was better than the sweetbread.

Okay let's recap. Everything was at least good. More than half of the food we had tonight was amazing. I'm not sure I've ever said that about any other restaurant. The portion was only reasonable. What more could you ask?

Tina's killer oven fried wings

This was an accidental recipe that I adapted from two different recipes and improvised a little more. But it turned out the best wings both of us have had.

Tina's killer wings

I rub the wings (padded dry) with salt, five spice powder and some old bay. Let them marinade for at least 8 hrs. Just before putting them in the oven, I lightly coated each wing with a corn starch and baking powder mixture. Arranged on a wire rack over a baking pan, and baked at 425 degree for half an hour, rotating half way through.

light coat of corn starch mixture

While wings were baking, I made a sauce with sriracha, tahini, rice vinegar, honey, fresh garlic and ginger. Blended all ingredients till smooth. Once the wings are out of the oven, throw them in a big bowl, pour the sauce over the wings and shake to coat well. Consume immediately.

Srirachi/tahini sauce

Just out of the oven wings; the skin is so incredibly flaky

need I say more?

Beeting heart

I went by a farm a mile away from my work on Friday, and picked up some fresh organic produce for the weekend. It made me feel all Portlandic. =)

I got lots of beets, both golden and regular. Gave them a good scrub and roasted them in the oven. They're super sweet. The flesh is beautiful. They are also really good for improving bowel movement, if you know what I mean...

Blueberry pie

It's farmer's market day again on Nike campus. Unger farm was there too with their enticing berries. I went a little overboard and got a whole flat of berries, four pints of blueberries and two pints strawberries. For people who haven't had Oregon strawberries before, it's hard to describe to you how much better they are than the standard ones from California. The blueberry has a silky buttery mouth feel and it's juicy and sweet.

I bought more than we can eat fresh, so I decided last second to make a blueberry pie. Because it's last second, ready-made store-bought pie doughs have to do. I use Pillsbury one that comes in a pack of two roll-up doughs.

Blueberry pies are the easiest to make. You dress the berries with some lemon juice, a bit of sugar and touch of salt. Coat them with 2-3 tablespoon of cornstarch. And that's it. The berries are fairly sweet naturally, I cut the sugar down to 2 tablespoons. You can find more elaborate pie recipes at America's Test Kitchen, which involves using natural pectin from apples. That's not something I was going to attempt on a week night. =)

The baked pie has such a rustic look with over flowing blueberry juice, still bubbling out of the oven.
Guess what's for breakfast tomorrow?

Oregon strawberries

Ever since we arrived, we've been expecting the strawberry season, which typically starts early June. Our friends, Louisa and John, have told us wonderful stories about Oregon strawberries and its superiority to any other variety in the country. This spring has been a cold one, so the strawberries came in a little late.

I also discovered that Nike campus has a farmer's market in the summer season. I need to find out the exact frequency of occurrence so I can better prepare for it next time. Today is summer solstice and turned out to be a beautiful day to kick off the summer. Everyone was eating outside.

I saw the strawberry stall and checked out their samples and immediately determined that these are in fact the same strawberries John and Louisa have told us about. They are on the smaller side with more tender flesh than typical commercial strawberries from California. The berries are also red throughout. I got a couple pints.

After dinner, we stood by the sink and ate the entire pint of it. No wonder Haagen-Dazs would buy an entire valley of Oregon strawberries just for their strawberry ice cream. The unfortunate thing is the strawberry season is only a few weeks. So we have to eat a ton of it now, or can them for later consumption. I'm already looking at strawberry jam recipes...