Barbara and Wayne Edwards, owners of the month-old What’s Cooking? food booth and makers of the gazpacho, take pride in the fact that practically all of their dishes are sourced from market vendors and from the local area.
The Edwards begin each week with a shopping trip.
“We shop the way other people go to museums,” Barbara jokes.
Such is the reverence the couple holds toward fresh tomatoes, firm onions, sheath-like leeks, leafy spinach and cool heads of kale. Great international food is their passion.
“You go to Venezuela, get an empanada and then spend two years trying to figure out how to make it,” Wayne says.
Along with the gazpacho, their lunch specials for the week ($8) include Wayne’s empanada, a pastry shell stuffed with slow-cooked ground pork, onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers and corn. Other offerings include Chicago-style pizzas ($10), or a tomato, basil, parmesan pasta salad ($5/quart, $9/pint). Lunch specials are usually eaten at the market, but their specialties are the frozen soups, sauces and stews that customers take home.
Each item on the menu âeuro;” from the delectable Yucatan albondigas soup, a light concoction of fresh mint, tomato and onion with delicate turkey meatballs in a simple chicken broth ($7/pint, $13/quart), to the hearty yet tender veal, pork and beef meatballs (price varies) âeuro;” is frozen and sold to be reheated at home. The couple performs tests to ensure that the freezing doesn’t diminish the taste and quality of the entrée. The gazpacho, for instance, does not freeze well, and the Edwards don’t sell it that way. That’s all right because you’ll want to spoon it up as soon as the cool green broth hits the cup.
What’s Cooking? - Thu-Sat from 10 am-6 pm; Sun. 11 am-5 pm - Spokane Public Market - 24 W. 2nd Avenue - (509) 389-9869
