I could not have asked for a better end to my weekend trip to Boston.  With just a little over an hour to savor before it was time to taxi out, Crema Café was the perfect place to spend it.  Located smack in Harvard Square, it was easy to get to and relatively unassuming with its dark brown awning.  Once the doors opened, however, I knew that my friend had picked the right place.
Crema Café was warm and bustling with graduate students who were there with their parents or friends.  At first glance, the lunch menu was reminiscent of other high quality cafes that can regularly be found along the coast of California.  There were sandwiches both savory and sweet, soups as well as salads, a featured quiche and the usual spread of amazing-looking pastries.  The smell of top-notch coffee permeated the downstairs and provided the perfect welcome to those who were waiting in line to order.  While the “Sweet Potato sandwich with avocado, green apple, sprouts, hummus & caramelized shallot vinaigrette on toasted wheat” sounded to die for, I opted for the more Serena-esque choice of “Roasted Eggplant & Tomato with mozzarella & homemade pesto pressed on light rye.”  We found a table in full sunlight upstairs where we could whole-heartedly enjoy our selections, and then we did.
It made me even happier afterwards to discover that the wonderful-smelling coffee comes from beans that are roasted daily in the nearby Afton, Massachusetts, where they’re then artisan-crafted by George Howell of the Terroir Coffee Company.  Those fruits and vegetables that were in our sandwiches?   When possible, they’re purchased from local farmer’s markets.  Now this is happiness.

Serena's Crema Cafe Lunch

-Serena

Interior of Upper Crust

There are just some days on which if I don’t eat pizza, I’m not happy.  For every other day, there’s Mastercard.  Just kidding.  But really, pizza is one of the few foods that I crave very seldom but, when I do, the craving is seriously strong.  One such day of yearning came this past weekend, while in Boston, and now makes for the story behind this third exhibit.  I wanted pizza, and not just any.  I was in the mood for fantastically delicious pizza, and was prepared to accept nothing less.  Lucky for me, The Upper Crust Pizzeria is located just down the street from my friend’s apartment.
Upper Crust is a Boston-based chain of fourteen locations, spread out across the city.  Founder Jordan Tobins brought his version of Neapolitan pizza—think large pieces of tomato in sauce atop a super-thin crust—to the area eight years ago and appears to have been thriving with his business since.  Late on a frigid Sunday night, the Harvard Square store had a whole slew of people eating in or waiting to take their pies away.
For those who step in to eat just one slice (one was enough for me), there are usually three options: a simple cheese, a pepperoni, and a slice of the day.  Being a lover of the more unusual toppings (and also somewhat of a vegetarian), I was instantaneously pleased with the red pepper-portobello pezzo del giorno.  And, once I actually began eating, it was pretty darn good.
The added value of the experience was that Upper Crust’s produce supplier attempts to source its goods locally.  During the summer, this middleman draws from the Pioneer Valley Association, a cooperative of 35 growers and vendors that is based in the area.  In the autumn and winter months, the company selects from other regional farmers who can supply it with pizzerias’ standard basil, broccoli, greens, spinach, and tomatoes.
Once you’ve tried Upper Crust, head over to Stone Hearth Pizza Co.; they’re Cambridge’s competing Neapolitan pizzerias.  With both looking to go local, you can’t go wrong.
-Serena

Serena's Pizza at Upper Crust

Boston Cream Pie

It doesn’t get any more typical than Boston Cream Pie.  After all, it is the state of Massachusetts’ official dessert.  Of course, I hadn’t heard much about the dish until I was actually there, in the midst of things, but that’s another story.  Perhaps that makes its local flair even more enticing?  The point is: as soon as I found out that the city I was visiting had a dessert named after it, I absolutely had to try it.  And not just from anywhere, from Boston’s most touristy eating location: Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
For those of you who don’t know what I’m referring to, Faneuil Hall is a sort of cafeteria— a Disneyland-ified Boston cafeteria.  For what feels like a few blocks, this enclosed space for shopping and consuming is lined with stalls that sell your typical Bostonian fare.  Lobster pieces from the nearby ports?  You got it.  Clam chowder in hefty bread bowls?  Of course.  And, somewhere nestled in between them all, are billions of bakeries.  No doubt, I bee-lined for one called North End Bakery, where, to my instant satisfaction, there was a whole tray of beautiful slices of Boston Cream Pies awaiting me.
My first question—and that of the supposed “Bostonian” that was acting as my tour guide that day—was, “Why does it look like cake?  Are we sure this is the real thing?”  The answer to both was, “Yes, you unknowledgeable outsider.”  (Well, not really, but upon further reading that’s how I felt that my question should have been responded to.)  Boston Cream Pies are called pies and not cakes for the simple reason that our much-revered colonial ancestors did not have cake pans, they had pie tins.  (Well, of course they didn’t.  Should we have expected them to bring their whole kitchens with them on the Mayflower?)
Once the nice lady behind the counter assured us that yes, in fact, we were ordering what we thought we were supposed to be ordering, we walked away with our respective slices, found the last table in the place, and sat down to enjoy our hard-earned desserts.  To me, it was a vanilla cake with cream filling and chocolate icing.  How many places in the United States incorrectly sell you a birthday cake instead of a Boston Cream Pie?  Too many.
There’s also a whole history to how the dessert got its name, but I’ll save you that for now.  All you need to know is that in the city of Boston, there is a wonderfully local dessert known as the Boston Cream Pie, and that if you visit, you should try it.  The cake, or the donut, which apparently (according to Wikipedia, at least) is the state of Massachusetts’ official type of Berliner.  I would have never guessed.
-Serena