Farmers Market Eats!

By Robin Salts Beckett

Photos by Sara Gettys

Yakima’s Farmers Market on Yakima Avenue and Third Street has long been known as the place to find fresh, local fruit and vegetables for dinners at home, but it also offers a delicious array of food that’s ready-to-eat; in fact, it’s a veritable outdoor food plaza, with dishes like pad thai, lumpia and even the decadent and ever-so-French pain au chocolat beckoning hungry shoppers to stop and stay awhile. Visitors can follow their nose, grab a bite and find a nice place to sit and taste the flavor of the market right there on Third Street.

For those with a sweet tooth (or kids in tow), try the shaved ice and Italian soda stand.  With its rainbow variety of flavors, a cup of the sweet-smelling stuff hits the spot on one of Yakima’s sweltering summer days.

For early risers who want to get to the market when it opens at 9 a.m. and might not be ready for a heaping plate of lunch, wander to Essencia’s booth, just a hop, skip and a jump away from its storefront across Yakima Avenue.  Essencia offers housemade pastries such as a blueberry custard croissant, ham and cheese croissant and a pain au chocolate (that’s a chocolate croissant) that are easy to eat while walking.  They’re also delicious, with buttery, delicate layers of pastry enveloping something equally as tasty.  The layers are so delicate that they can be a little flaky, but don’t worry — it’s worth it.

Lucy Dominguez’s booth offers tamales, corn on the cob and gorgeous, gigantic containers of fruit juice, including their tantalizing Horchata, or rice water. Dominguez says there are a scant three ingredients in this refreshing concoction: rice, milk and cinnamon.  The result is sweet but not cloying and absolutely delicious.

Lutong Pinoy is a Wapato-based Filipino restaurant that operates a stand at the Farmers Market. Owner Marieta Batarao cooks up Filipino favorites, including the popular lumpia (egg rolls) and pork BBQ, but don’t miss the pancit, a noodle dish using yaki soba, rice noodles, chicken, red and green bell peppers, cabbage, celery and carrots.

Thai Orchid serves up fried rice, “chicken on a stick” and the aromatic pad thai, with its distinctive orange color and sweet-and-spicy flavor combination. It’s served by the plateful, so you won’t go hungry.

No trip to the Farmers Market would be complete without cruising by R&J’s Original Kettle Corn, a mainstay at the market, and grabbing a bag of caramel corn made on the spot. Watching the caramel corn being produced is spectacle enough to sit and watch for a while. Just make sure you’ve got something to eat.