Midweek: Farmers' Market for Dinner

Nashville Restaurants and Food
Midweek: Farmers' Market for Dinner

You can’t beat the fun of strolling through the Nashville Farmers’ Market and figuring out dinner based on what catches your eye. This weekend it was a newcomer that inspired our Mexican night. Our first stop is usually to peruse the table vendors set up in the Market House. FireSpice is a relative newcomer. It’s run by Nelson Williams an engineer with a love of food. He sells Fire Roasted Salsa that is akin to a traditional Mexican salsa in some respects. It’s a thick, dark and smoky blend of peppers that would be familiar at many of the better taquerias in town. It’s in the finish that Mr. Williams veers off the traditional path, adding lime and brown sugar. Sweet heat is a pretty common idea these days. What makes it unique here is the complexity and depth of this salsa.

Using that salsa as a starter we were quite pleased to find the Tamale Pot folks set up in the second shed. Owners Glenda Knox Carter and Tammy Whitehouse make traditional Mississippi delta style tamales in three styles: veggie, pork and beef. They serve them hot for lunch or frozen for later. You simply pop the entire frozen bag into a pot of boiling water. They come out nicely steamed. The savory veggie version has a strong back-end heat and excellent flavor. They have been selling tamales at the Farmers’ Market since July and already have a bit of a following.

The Veggie Eater cooked up poblanos and onions for rajas with a little Greek yogurt for topping. We had a fine meal.

Our AM@FM visit (see our last review) was topped with what has become a regular and sinful stop for us at the Farmers’ Market: the Butter Cake Babe. We were pulled in with the promise of pumpkin butter cake: a mash-up of butter cake and pumpkin pie. It’s a messy and wonderful dessert. The Veggie Eater also insisted on the toffee butter cake, which is a bit more bar-like in consistency and as decadent as always. Julie Granda says that business has been quite good as of late. The Folk Festival, Night Market and various walks and runs in Bicentennial Park has made for some busy days and evenings. The Farmers’ Market was certainly hopping on this Saturday morning. It’s so good to have it running at full-steam again.