I live in Provo, Utah. I’m not sure how I ended up here much less owning a house here. You don’t have to be temple ordained to own property a mile from BYU campus, apparently.
Half that distance from my house is the Provo Farmers Market, which ran June 7th to October 25th this year. It also runs into winter from November 4th until April of next year, changing venues from Pioneer Park in downtown Provo to the dilapidated and ancient, yet persistent and somehow burgeoning Provo Towne Center mall. The kind of mall where all the department stores are going out of business one by one, most of the storefront spaces are empty, and there’s a space dedicated to Spirit Halloween that doesn’t get filled the rest of the year when it’s not there, and somehow still has some of the coolest places in the city. Geek Together, I’m looking at you.
For this initial run of Gig Noms, we’ll be hitting up the summer variant of the Provo Farmers Market. I use the term summer loosely. It’s 58º outside (that’s 14ºc for those who don’t math in Murica units) on October the 25th. Yes, I managed to get this in on the very last day of the market. I would’ve gone on the first day in June, but I didn’t have a food blog in June.
Let’s see what’s going on at this gig, yeah?
Latin American Hot Spot
Full disclosure — I’ve been to this farmers market before. I live down the street from it. Of course I’ve been there.
The first time I went, two things surprised me:
- The complete and utter lack of fresh produce. It’s a farmers market, and there wasn’t a single farmer in sight.
- The huge quantity of food booths cooking and serving delicious noms.
The first one was rectified this time around. I found a truck with a massive trailer full of pumpkins on the far side of the park. Next to it was another stall selling all kinds of garlic, and another one selling a huge assortment of mushrooms. It felt very autumny. My browser is telling me that autumny is not a word. I disagree.
So yeah. Plenty of produce. What about the cooked food, though?
There are food trucks. Lordy, there are food trucks. Burgers from Wanna Smash, ribs and sliders food from Papa Stew’s Kitchen, honey dogs from The Corn Dog Co, $30 gut bombs from Fancy Burger, extreme potatoes from Neat Frites, legit karaage from Happy Tummie, cheese steaks from The Meat, melts from Valley Grilled Cheese, and of course, the aforementioned Bummy’s bringing the beef.
I’ve tried some of these in the past, and they’re great. I’m sure I’ll be reviewing them in the future, but today I wasn’t feeling a food truck crawl.
I guess if we’re disclosing facts, I should also mention my mixed ancestry. Scottish, Irish, Welsh, British, and American South on my dad’s side, and Spanish, French, and Mexican on my mom’s side. I’m disturbingly Western European. My ancestors craved spices. They fought wars for them. Committed atrocities for curry and chili powder. I’ve never met a spice I don’t like.
I love Hispanic and Latin food. I don’t care what country, if it’s south of the US, it’s gold. The spices, the textures, everything seems to be cooked with live flame, and it all just comes together in a wonderful, titillating crescendo of flavor. It speaks to my little Texan heart.
So today we’re gonna be hitting up a few Latin American (and one Filipino) booths at this outdoor market to get some flame-kissed flavor into me.
Walk with me. We’re getting noms.
Manjares Cheesy Arepa
I scoped out the whole array of canopied food tents before making my decision, but I must say the smells were making me impatient. I decided to grab a couple of cheap apps before hitting up a more solid meal. First on my list: Manjares for an authentic Colombian arepa.
Smothered in cotija cheese and a delicious cilantro verde, this little pocket of joy hit me in just the right spot. The salty añejo cheese was the perfect topping to highlight the griddle marks underneath. I watched the guy meticulously turn each plat of pre-made, ice cold dough as it went from chilled to crusty in just two or three minutes. It cost me $5 for the little pancake of love shown above, but wait. It gets better.
Once I had my fork in it, I noticed how easily it crumbled apart. The dough was SO tender and moist, but at the same time crispy. And oh god the cheese pull. The cheese pull.
THE CHEESE PULL.
Just drown me in that. I dunno what kind of cheese was inside the arepa, but I’m thinking oaxaca or just plain mozz. Either way, it was delicious, and that cheese pull got me doubly excited for what was to come. This might’ve been a small treat, but that made it all the easier to devour. Moving on.
Happy Tucus Spicy Salteña
Down the sidewalk from Manjares was another booth boasting some South American noms. Hailing from further down the continent in Bolivia, Happy Tucus had plenty of empanada-style pastries on display, and I couldn’t really say no. I was craving something meaty after the arepa, so I opted for their spicy beef salteña for $6.50.
This handheld little bomb might look tiny in my hands, but I have enormous hands. I’m serious. I’ve been told I have Yaoi Hands. Yeah, I can palm a basketball. Like that’s hard.
You’ll notice the charred edges. The bottom was equally dark, but oddly enough, it passed the smell test. I stuck my nose right up against the blackened husk and got none of the acrid scent of burnt crust.
Moving in for the first bite, I nibbled off one end and got a sad amount of filling, expecting as much. It gave me a good taste of just the dough though — very buttery and a little sweet.
Once I hit the actual filling, I was impressed. Tender little cubes of stewed beef in a mild, flour-thickened sauce with veggies, diced potato chunks and, oddly enough, slices of boiled egg. Nothing to hate here.
The beef was super tender, falling apart to the lightest chew along with the potatoes. The whole thing was seasoned with what tasted like some type of chile verde, and my only disappointment came from how unspicy the whole package was. When I ordered a spicy salteña, I wasn’t expecting my eyes to water, but I was hoping to at least burn a little bit eating it. This is spicy for people who think mayonnaise is spicy. It makes sense. This is Utah, after all.
That aside, the exterior was super crunchy and the inside was warm and savory. This was a four biter, though I could’ve gotten it town in three because of how tasty it was. Thoroughly enjoyed, just needs some hot sauce for dipping next time.
Fresko Meat Skewers
Alright, that’s enough apps. Time for an actual meal, and I was craving meat. I went through my options, and the taco stand I was looking at was super crowded. There was a smell wafting over from the booth next door that I couldn’t resist. Meat skewers for $8 a piece. In we go.
Fresko is a local catering company that deals in fresh food and meal kits, and I’ll take anything that’s grilled over open fire. I opted for a chicken skewer and a steak skewer and sampled some of each of their sauces, BBQ and teriyaki.
Each skewer had a ton of meat, probably around 6 ounces each with a few veggies interspersed. I did my best to space out the two sauces to leave some pieces uncovered, which I tried first.
The steak was reasonably cooked to a medium, but definitely not a fatty cut. Probably choice grade, and probably sirloin. Nice beefy flavor, but it felt like it got bigger in my mouth as I chewed. Can’t blame the cook for that. It’s just a low quality piece of meat. The red onion and green bell pepper slices provided a nice distraction. The chicken, on the other hand, was awesome. Perfectly cooked breast, juicy and tender, seasoned with just salt, pepper, and smoke. The grilled tomatoes between each piece of chicken were cooked to mush, though. Obliterated to nothing. You can see one on the right side of the picture above that looks like it got hit by a nuclear blast.
The sauces didn’t add anything. The BBQ sauce was Sweet Baby Ray’s for sure, which I have no complaints about other than it’s all anyone uses now. The teriyaki sauce couldn’t be identified but was equally store-bought and more or less tasteless.
Overall, I guess it was worth the $16. I’ll always take well-prepared chicken over bad steak. This one had me wishing I’d avoided the beef. Still, it fulfilled my protein goals for the day, even if I didn’t quite finish it. That chicken was great, though.
Sun’s Fried Banana Lumpia
I was looking for something sweet, and I certainly wasn’t lacking for options. Croissants, agua frescas, raspas, Dubai chocolate strawberry things, kettle corn. There were so many options, I was paralyzed with choice. Until I saw a sign.
A smiling lumpia. Look at it. LOOK AT IT. IT’S SO CUTE. Also I looked up the meaning of the phrases afterward. They’re Cebuano for “really delicious”, “warm and sweet”, and “tasty!” and that sums everything up perfectly. I mean, look at this masterpiece I got for eight bucks.
Three bananas sliced in half, wrapped in dough, fried until GBD, then slathered in whipped cream and hot chocolate sauce. Could you ask for anything more delicious? Look at the bits of char. Masterfully done.
Biting in reveals a storm of delicate textures. The lumpia wrapper is crispy beyond measure and not oily in the least, and the inside is warm, luxurious banana with a bit of cinnamon. The whipped cream breaks the temperature barrier by calming the piping hotness from the fried dough. You might think it’d be too sweet, but you’d be wrong — it’s just the right amount, doesn’t hit too hard. I found myself going back to dip the lumpia in the whipped cream and chocolate throughout, losing myself in the simplicity of the it. The contrast of textures is what put it over the edge for me. Truly delicious noms.
I’m not generally a huge dessert person, but these hit it out of the park and across town. Props to the two lovely ladies who were making them by hand. I can’t find any social media or online presence for this pop-up, but people need to eat their food. It’s so, so good. If you see that smiling lumpia anywhere, make sure you stop and try it. It’s masarap af.
International Noms Close to Home
Trying foods from four different countries wasn’t what I set out to do, but I regret nothing. I was craving a good cheese pull, and the arepa hit the spot. I wanted savory comfort food, and the salteña delivered. The skewers gave me my meat fix, and the banana lumpia topped off the entire thing with a crown of deep fried gold. All truly delicious and made better by being able to support local small businesses. It just goes to show you can get your fix eating food from any culture on the planet, and maybe you’ll find new gems and new experiences to expand your horizons.
Those banana lumpia are gonna live rent-free in my head until I eat them again.
Oh, before I forget, credit to the crew in the promo image up above. They’re from El Taquito Rico here in town.
That’s it for today. I’ll try to hit the winter version of the Provo Farmers Market in a few months. Keep on nomming, and be sure to check out last week’s post if you missed it.
Love and peace <3