Get Your Tamales At Green City Market

By Melissa Wiley in Food on Jul 17, 2013 4:30PM

Sometimes the Tamale Guy just isn’t there when you need him. But then you’re loitering among the Green City Market stalls and stealing some shade beneath the River Valley Ranch tent, the urban outpost of the oldest mushroom farm in the Midwest. Yes, their triple mushroom kale and asparagus stew is well and fine, but if we’re going to eat something hot between July and September, it had better be red hot. It had better be a tamale.

The newest fungal fixings under River Valley Ranch’s shamrock green awning are proof that not only did the world not end since last farmers market season, as some silly ancient civilizations predicted, but it’s gotten a little bit better. For $6, you can nosh on two mushroom and asparagus tamales loaded with River Valley’s signature salsa, made with portabella mushrooms, cilantro, and key lime. Together, they make for a respectable lunch and a substantive counterweight to all those berries you’ve been gathering at neighboring tents.