Oh, My Darlin'

Clementine's Bistro fields a winner.

by Trey Popp

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Published: May 16, 2007

SEARED SCIENCE: Chef Bob Patton prepares scallops with olives and coconut milk � and it works. Photo By: Michael T. Regan (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Fundamentalists of the Gregorian calendar will tell you that the first day of spring comes on March 20 or 21, depending on the timing of the vernal equinox. That may be so. But anyone who eats knows that there is a more important event no amount of astronomy can pin down in advance: the coming of the spring menu, which can take several weeks longer for a restaurant that thinks locally. In my case, the lag time was 42 days. It ended the first time I sat down at Clementine's on Passyunk Avenue in South Philly.

Clementine's Bistro, a small BYO owned by Restaurant School teacher Bob Patton, has been mixing things up on its chalkboard menu since late February. That was no time to sit outside, and you weren't likely to find English peas or local heirloom tomatoes on offer. But now that the season's first harvest is out of the fields and hothouses in Lancaster, Patton is having fun. In accordance with the "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" sticker in the window, he rethinks his menu every week in accordance with the latest offerings from Green Meadow Farms in Gap, Pa. The chalkboard choices change daily and function as a reminder of everything that's good about this kind of approach. Patton's technique is mostly French, his touch is light, and his ideas are simple but occasionally surprising. The straightforward pleasures of farm-driven cuisine don't demand an auteur in the kitchen, but they do require creativity and resourcefulness, and he has both.

Two dishes in particular merit a close look, even if their lifespan is necessarily limited. A recent incarnation of red snapper featured a seared filet with crispy skin atop a risotto studded with red tomatoes and fresh peas. Peas are, of course, at their peak in early spring, but no tomato snapped off a greenhouse vine in late April can ever hold a candle to the real summer crop. You can come close, however, by drying them in the oven at low heat, as these were. That was a nice touch, but it was the sauce underneath that elevated the dish from the realm of smart home cooking. This reduction featured a blood orange compound butter and preserved yellow tomatoes from last summer, which combined to create a pleasantly acidic and brightly flavored complement to the mild fish.

An entrée of seared scallops was built around a completely different palette of tastes. The accompanying coconut curry sauce was definitely more French than Thai � no heat to speak of � and the middle of the plate belonged to a warm lentil salad seeded with olives and mandarin orange sections. It's not much of a stretch to say that a typical cook could go through a lifetime's worth of olives and coconut milk without ever thinking of throwing them together, so it's not saying much to peg this as the most interesting meal I had at Clementine's. But who knew that it would also be the best? The pairing of oranges and olives betrayed a Moroccan influence that was cleverly subverted by the substitution of French lentils for couscous. Meanwhile, the sweetness of the citrus picked up on that of the coconut sauce, whose relatively low salinity made the olives a surprisingly welcome spike of briny intensity.

Clementine's other early-May offerings leaned more toward creatures of the sea. A nifty salt cod brandade appetizer came breaded and fried, like a high-class hush puppy with white fish and potatoes in place of cornmeal and buttermilk. The accompanying celery-root slaw could have used something to spice it up a tad. Escargot were done up in a puff pastry in another starter, which gained most of its flavor from sautéed bell peppers. There was a bouillabaisse that stuck pretty closely to the traditional Provence style with a mix of monkfish, snapper, mussels and shrimp. The aioli smeared on the toasted baguette rounds was zippy and ample; the reduced fish stock was even tastier but too scarce � another dip of the ladle would have been welcome.

An entrée of pork done three ways amounted to a tremendous portion, on the other hand, and made for a creative interpretation of a down-home combo. A rich ragout of the pig's shoulder contrasted with the leanness of a grilled loin; the trio was rounded out by crispy twists of prosciutto mixed with cooked greens. With the white bean puree on the side, it was like Southern soul food repurposed for shiny-shoed city folk.

You could think of Clemen-tine's cuisine as mom's cooking kicked up a few notches: square meals in generous helpings with a dash of creativity but no pretentiousness. Patton's midspring offerings are also pretty healthful, as restaurant fare goes � after all, there's more to French cooking than butter. Yet the location may be something of a double-edged sword. This block of Passyunk could hardly be more pleasant � something that neighbors like Paradiso, Cantina Los Caballitos and Rosalena's Café are profiting from � but it's in a part of town where the dominance of Italian food has only recently started to give ground to Mexican. Clementine's fits neither of those bills. But with food this solid and fairly priced, there is a new reason to eat in South Philly.

(t_popp@citypaper.net)

Clementine's Bistro

1617 E. Passyunk Ave.215-755-4240Tue.-Thu., 5-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 5-11 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m-3 p.m. and 4-9 p.m.Appetizers, $5-$9; entrees, $17-$22; desserts, $4Wheelchair accessible.BYOB.Reservations accepted.

 

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