Upstairs on the Square: A Tomato Feast

After another long rainy day, I was really looking forward to meeting up with some of my food blogger pals (Meghan, Kristen,  Alicia and Megan) for dinner in Harvard Square.  Our original plan was to check out Rialto's outdoor terrace but the weather made us think twice about this one.  Megan discovered that Upstairs on the Square was hosting a tasting menu centered around one of my favorite summer ingredients - the tomato!  We were all instantly sold on the idea and Megan graciously made us a reservation.

I did a little research beforehand and I was excited to learn that Executive Chef Steven Brand would be using locally grown tomatoes for this tasting menu.  I also thought this was fitting as this week is Farmers Market Week in Massachusetts.  I am participating in a "Loving Local: Celebrating the Flavors of Massachusetts" blogathon to bring awareness to local food.  I thought a re-cap of this evening would nicely tie in with this theme!

But back to the food.  We had a lovely tasting menu ahead of us last night.

Since the wine pairing was only $13 more, we all decided to do the tasting menu with the wine pairing.  To start, our server poured us a glass of 2008 Ca' del Solo Albarino from Monterey County.  This was a nice light wine and we were told that it was a vegan wine (although I'm not quite sure what makes it vegan).  We also kicked off the evening with an amuse bouche - a shooter of summer gazpacho.

Normally I cringe when I see gazpacho on a menu because it is not really one of my favorite dishes.  Even though I love vegetable juices and Bloody Marys, I just can't get myself to enjoy a thick tomato-based soup.  But this amuse bouche couldn't have been further from that.  It was really chunky with kernels of sweet corn and crunchy miniature croutons.  This definitely was large for an amuse bouche but I wasn't complaining!

While we waited for our first course to arrive, we dug into the generous bread basket.  And over lots of laughter and conversation, our courses began to arrive.

Our first course was a classic native heirloom tomato salad with fresh market raspberry vinegar, Vermont goat cheese and Thai basil.

This dish was so pretty in its colors and I absolutely loved the creamy goat cheese.  When I was all done with my plate, I took a cue from Kristen and grabbed a piece of bread to soak up all of that delicious raspberry vinegar.

Our next wine tasting was a French bourgogne - 2007 Domaine Caillot Les Herbeux.  This white burgundy wine was a little to wood-flavored for me so I wasn't a huge fan.  However, I was in love with our next course - a parsley and lemon crusted hake with lightly crushed Yukon gold potatoes and basil tomato water.

Wow, this dish was amazing.  The tomato flavor wasn't really obvious but the parsley and lemon crust on the fish was so wonderful.  We were all so into this dish and I definitely dipped back into the basket for another piece of bread to soak up the basil tomato water.

Our final wine tasting was a Cabernet Sauvignon - 2006 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Artemis from Napa Valley.  I absolutely loved this wine and wanted to savor every sip.  It went beautifully with our third course, which was a wood-grilled New York strip steak served with a tomato a la Provencale and slow-roasted garlic.  The aroma of roasted garlic hit you immediately and for me it is always a welcome scent.  This dish was definitely welcome on a cold rainy evening like last night.  The first photo wasn't so great but I loved that there was a smiley face on my dish.

Our server actually turned our plates around and this made for a better photo, even if it hid the fantastic stuffed tomato.

The dessert course was definitely intriguing when we were served a sweet tomato sorbet coupe.  This dessert was layered with a red wine reduction, olive oil ice cream, sweet tomato sorbet, candied pinenuts, a whipped cream and topped with a lemon thyme shortbread.  It was an absolute stunning dish and I'm sad that my photo doesn't do it justice.  There was not a single element of this dish that I didn't adore but my favorites were of course the olive oil ice cream and the candied pinenuts!

It is hysterical to watch a table of food bloggers try to get a great photo.  Our flashes were going off over and over again and it looked there was some serious paparazzi action but it was just the five of us trying to photograph our dessert!

I had a great time with the ladies last night.  I have been really lucky to meet some great people through my food blog who have become more than just acquaintances but actual friends.  It was nice to be at a dinner where we weren't learning about a new product or meeting new people.  Instead, we just got to be ourselves and share about our real lives - from our relationships to our frustrations with our blogs to our careers.  It was really wonderful to just relax and enjoy a good meal with great company.

Upstairs on the Square is located at 91 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, MA.

Sunday Brunch: Upstairs on the Square

It should come to absolutely no surprise that one of my favorite TV channels is the Food Network.  Last week, I had the Food Network channel on and it was playing an episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate.  I absolutely love this show because it is mindless food porn and I often watch it while I'm playing around on my laptop.  As I was writing a blog post, I was absentmindedly watching the show when I heard Sunny Anderson describe that one of the best things she ever ate was a delicious dish of eggs Benedict.  Since I am a huge fan of poached eggs, this immediately caught my attention.  When Sunny Anderson went on to say that these eggs Benedict were from Upstairs on the Square, I knew that I had to try them out and the following day, Bret made reservations for us for Sunday brunch.

On Sunday, we arrived at Upstairs on the Square for our 11:30 AM brunch reservation.  Although it was a beautiful day out, the temperatures were slowly rising so we opted to sit indoors for our meal.  I've been to Upstairs on the Square before and each time I am so charmed by the delightfully pink tea party decor.

To start off the meal, I ordered a glass of sparkling rose wine (Manoir de la Tête à Claques Rosé
(Saumur)).  I thought that ordering a pink beverage was completely appropriate for Upstairs on the Square!

Bret and I were excited about our bread basket, which contained miniature breakfast pastries, including the most delicious bite of coffee cake and sticky buns.  The miniature sticky buns never made it in the photo since we eagerly devoured it!

I didn't even have to look at the menu to decide what I wanted to eat, but Bret had a lot to choose from.  Ultimately, he went with the steak and eggs with a garlic and rosemary-rubbed rib-eye steak served with chipotle butter and fried potatoes.

I obviously went with the eggs Benedict, which was the reason we were there to begin with!

When I broke into the eggs, I saw that they were poached beautifully as the eggs were deliciously runny.  Instead of bacon or Canadian ham, the eggs were on top of crisp slices of pancetta and golden griddled English muffins.  The pancetta was a bit salty but the saltiness balanced out nicely with the rich tarragon hollandaise sauce.  You could really taste the tarragon, which was a nice element to this dish.

I can totally understand why this dish made it onto "The Best Thing I Ever Ate."  While I think that the "BLT" eggs Benedict with bacon, grilled lobster and grilled tomato that I tried at Blue Heaven while I was in Key West last month are the best eggs Benedict I've ever eaten, this dish comes in at a close second and is obviously a lot closer to home!

After brunch, Bret and I wandered around Harvard Square to a few of our favorite stores and eventually found ourselves at the Harvard Square Farmers Market.  Since we had a lot of fresh ingredients already in our fridge, we passed on a lot of the local fruits and vegetables.  But we did make one stop at the Taza Chocolate tent.  Like others, we wanted to help out Taza as much as possible with the recent flood damage to their factory.

After trying the Guajillo Chili Chocolate Mexicano, we picked up a disc, along with a disc of the Salted Almond Chocolate Mexicano.  We're saving both of these treats for a special occasion!

How do you like your eggs and where can you find your favorite egg dish?