I got sidetracked with the pretzel trout recipe yesterday and forgot to tell you about the second Lodge restaurant. I get to treat my team at work to a holiday lunch each December and yesterday we went to Clyde’s Lodge in Rockville, MD. It’s located next to a 20-acre nature preserve which makes for a peaceful setting.
They sat my group in the Tack Room which has a horse/hunting theme. There’s also a “Great Room” made from a 200 year-old two-story timber barn from Vermont, anchored at each end by massive stone fireplaces. There are two bar rooms – one has a huge birch bark canoe topped by a Native American weathervane. There’s a lovely hallway between rooms packed with a twig archway covered in tiny lights like the ones in the photo above of the exterior.
The raw oyster bar menu featured Maine, New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island oysters. I was surprised there weren’t any from the Chesapeake, but we were on a tight budget anyway. There were about ten beers on the beer list from the Maryland, Virginia, D.C. area. The starters included raw meats, all local and some made in-house, like the Duck Rillettes (did not try), and a cheese board, some of which came from local dairies. The price on the cheese sampler was $5 but I found out when the bill arrived that it was $5 per cheese. There were six types of cheese and I ordered two samplers, so I was quite bummed and embarrassed to spend $60 on cheese, most of which no one touched because some of the cheeses were weird and smelly.
The top three complimented sandwiches were the Reuben which was jam-packed with first-cut corned beef, the French Dip which had nice medium-rare hot roast beef, and the Auto Bahn Mi. This has German sausage, chicken liver pate, pickled daikon, cucumber, jalapenos, cilantro, and Sriracha mayo on a baguette; it was not spicy with the jalapenos on the side. Everyone had a maple cupcake for dessert – nothing to write home about there. I’d like to go back on a payday and try another one of the sandwiches. I forgot to take pictures of the food – I’m sorry I didn’t take a picture of that lame $30 cheese sampler – but I’ve included a couple from their website.
With Christmas and holiday parties coming up, I thought I’d mention how much processed white sugar is in eggnog. Clyde’s shares some of their recipes and a gallon of eggnog has two cups of sugar. I looked online to compare recipes and that’s the typical amount — they compare it to eating ice cream.
On the greener side, their asparagus salad recipe is below. Reading their website motivates me to try making cream of crab soup tomorrow, which I don’t remember ever trying to make before although it’s not difficult. I have a pound of lump crab meat in the freezer from a long-ago trip to the fish market that I’ll move to the frig. It will fill in nicely with Tony’s menu plan to make toasts.
Asparagus Salad (Serves 1)
6 oz blanched asparagus
Zest of ½ lemon
Juice of ½ lemon
1 oz toasted pine nuts
1 oz extra virgin olive oil
Pecorino Romano cheese shavings
Fan asparagus out on a plate. Sprinkle with lemon zest. Drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil. Finish with cheese and pine nuts. Add salt and pepper to taste.
