Mushroom Rice (and Boston's Haymarket - like a Farmers' Market Outlet)

Bostonians, if you don't mind being elbow-jostled, shouted at, and possibly grossed out by paring away the rotten parts of your fruits and vegetables, all in exchange for buying your produce at rock-bottom prices, go check out Haymarket! I sometimes hear it referred to as a farmers market but it's not. The vendors get the leftovers from wholesalers on Thursday evening and try to sell it Friday and Saturday. So do a bit of a walk-through first so you can eyeball prices and quality. Some vendors will yell at you if you handle the produce while others let you pick what you want. Fruit tends to be very ripe so buy only what you think you'll consume in a day or two. For example, despite being 10 for $1, I declined to buy plums because they were too soft for my tastes. And I looked carefully for mold in the strawberries before I picked 2 containers to buy. Still, if you're willing to put up with the hassle, you can get some amazing bargains. Here's my last haul when we stopped by at the end of the day:
- 10 bananas for $1
- 2 giant bunches of fresh basil for $2
- 2 pounds of strawberries for $1
- 3 pounds of mushrooms for $2
- 2 blocks of Wisconsin sharp cheddar cheese for $4 (about 6-8oz each)
- 3 more blocks of cheese from inside the cheese guy's store ($4, $4, and $3.50)

The cheese guy has the best prices we've found on good-quality cheeses. Not the rock bottom prices of the stands, but beats the regular prices of places like Formaggio and Whole Foods. And he offers a nice selection of different cheeses. Really nice English Stilton, some aged goudas, Prima Donna, goat cheese (even a goat blue cheese)... And the shop owner (inside) is really nice and knowledgeable too. There's a small table set up outside with various blocks of cheese. At the beginning of the day, those prices are $2.50 each, 3 for $5, 5 for $10. If you come at the end of the day, some of the cheeses will be sold out but you can buy for $2 each.

If you want to read more:
- http://www.boston-discovery-guide.com/haymarket-boston.html
- http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/442512
- http://www.yelp.com/biz/haymarket-boston

So grab a fistful of $1 bills and go check it out!

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So that explains how I came up with this dish. I was trying to think of what to do with 2 pounds of those white button mushrooms and came up with this (although searching the web for 'mushroom rice' I see that I'm far from the first person to come up with the idea). Still, it's really tasty. Tasty enough that we've had it 3 times this week already. Oh and the cheese thrown in the end is optional. I just added it because I wanted something to make it hold its shape when I formed the little rice cylinder. Scroll to the bottom of this post if you want to see more recipes for mushrooms.

gorkabear, I think this is gluten-free too if you use a broth that's gluten-free. Correct me if I'm wrong.

( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photos )