Taste of Cambridge

A few weeks ago, I saw a tweet from Megan about meeting up to attend Taste of Cambridge. Being a big fan of “Taste of” events, I bought a ticket and arranged to meet her at the event.

Since it was another beautiful Boston day, I decided to walk through the Public Garden to get to the Charles Street T station. On the way, I met a few very aggressive squirrels and passed by this nesting swan.

I stopped to take a few photos of the flowers in the garden. Oh what a difference a few months makes! Boston is at its best this time of year!

Before meeting up with Megan, I tried a Nantucket Nectars watermelon strawberry drink which was refreshing and not too sweet. I was glad that I was well hydrated as the Taste of Cambridge offered a variety of cocktails in addition to beer and wine.

As VIP guests, we had a few cocktail tickets in the form of tomatoes on our nametags. We all agreed that we would start with a St. Germain cocktail made by Upstairs on the Square, The Lovely Kathleen.

In addition to being really pretty, The Lovely Kathleen had a beautifully tart flavor with a hint of violet. It was delicious.

Upstairs on the Square chef Susan Regis was also doing a non-cooking demo with some summery steak and salads. It was pretty entertaining.

Though I don’t eat beef, the steak looked pretty good. . .

Instead of digging in to the food quite yet, we opted for another cocktail, this time a watermelon basil cooler from Tavern in the Square. It was cool and refreshing and combined two of my favorite summer ingredients, basil and watermelon.

We then dug into the food, some gazpacho and pizza from Stone Hearth Pizza and these shrimp toasts which I THINK were from Russell House Tavern.

Of the MANY cold soups of the evening, we really enjoyed Ten Tables’ creamy asparagus soup.

I loved the butternut squash arancini from Tavern in the Square but thought the choice of butternut squash was a little too autumnal. . . give me some in October!

Jasper White’s Summer Shack offered this lovely clam ceviche.

And the awesomely fun and delicious How2Heroes table was packed full of baked goods.

These creamy minty brownies were just about to die for.

The How2Heroes team also had Chili Pepper Jell-O shots which required a waiver before consumption! I caught Chelsee and Susie from We are not Martha knocking back some spicy Jell-O.

After watching these ladies suffer the heat of the shots, I grabbed some kimchi from Koreana. I could live on kimchi, I love it so much.

My final taste of the evening was a flatbread pizza from Jody Adams of Rialto. It had duck on it, and while I normally do not eat duck, I actually really liked this.

I also sipped on a Harpoon IPA throughout the evening. There were so many different tastes to try that I couldn’t photograph all of them, but I hope you get the gist: the food at this event was plentiful and delicious!

The best part about Taste of Cambridge is that the whole thing benefits two great charities, City Sprouts and YWCA. I am more than happy to support such great causes and give a big round of applause to the chefs and others who donate their time and resources to an event that raises money for them.

I enjoyed seeing the We are not Martha girls along with Megan and her friend Nina and Justin (@justincancook) and meeting other Twitter friends. Boston has the BEST Twitter/Blogger community, and I can’t wait for the fun events the summer brings.