Summertime Adventures: Part I

Sometimes people call Edmonton The Festival City. I think that's a misnomer because I think all cities have festivals all summer long. Edmonton has a major identity crisis going on right now (wait for the future post where I describe our trip to Capital Ex for more on that). For now, I muse, can they really be the City of Champions with their hockey team performing the way it has been? (Sandcat tells me it's a team-building year.) Or with our famous Olympian triathlete coming in last, and having to apologise to us? My goodness.

See this sign? It's official. What's there to do?

Well, Hawk and I like to visit Edmonton's festivals whether we are the City of Champions, Festival City, or City of Champion Festivals. I don't know how many of them we missed, or will yet miss this summer, but we've made it to our two favourites so far. The first one we hit up was A Taste of Edmonton.

A Taste of Edmonton is my favourite summer festival because it is all about eating, then, if you are in the mood, it can become all about drinking.

I remember the first time I went. It was with Magpie. The day was superhot. We ate way too much and were so thirsty, yet instead of going for water, we had wee thought bubbles over both our heads with images of Ice Cold Coca Colas in them. We hit up a vending machine. Ice Cold Coca Cola vended for us. I twisted the lid and WHOOSH Ice Cold Coca Cola baptism.

It was awesome.

Until we got home and found the boys eating a freshly ordered pizza. The smell of greasy delicious cheese mixed with the heat and our distended bellies was too much. We were forced outside onto the back stoop to loll in the sun like overfed basset hounds, contemplating how good it would feel to empty our tummies versus how bad it would feel to vomit up greasy food and no-longer Ice Cold Coca Cola.

This year I was going to write a proper, descriptive food blog about what Hawk and I ate. But really, there isn't much point, because the food at A Taste of Edmonton is generally good food. The same usually reputable restaurants come every year and serve their same best dishes. It's a no-lose situation, unless, like me, you want to see what else the Lingnan has to offer besides Crack Chicken. Or Padmanadi's besides Salty (not-) Chicken Strips. Y'know?

Also, I took too long to get my butt in gear with the writing. So instead, pictures with captions, in the hopes that you, too, will be tempted to come to Edmonton and try out A TASTE OF EDMONTON.

Deep-fried won tons from Panda Hut Express. They also gave us a coupon. Inside the wontons was cream cheese and crab. They were delicious, but so rich I felt sorta queasy after, and they were the first thing we ate! I don't know how I feel about them. When I was little, we'd go to Chinatown in Vancouver and get Won Ton Soup and Dad would tell me I was eating rat brains and I wasn't sure if I should believe him or not. I think I like rat brain won tons better than the deep fried variety, but I sure wouldn't want to be walking around in a crowd slurping hot soup. I find the won tons have left me in a state of internal crisis.

Hawk has a barbecue problem. He also has a coffee problem, but that's another blog. I think that in the two times we went he must have had four barbecue dishes. I could look it up on my paper, but I'm too lazy. This is some sort of pork on a bun with coleslaw. Hawk thought it was amazing. I was ambivalent. I like my barbecue cooked on a barbecue, not just barbecue flavoured. Hawk didn't care. Hawk was happy. Hawk got to eat most of it.

Padmanadi's salty chicken strips were overcooked. In my head, the chickens were laughing at me twice, once, for escaping, and secondly, because my false chicken was crunchy. DAMN YOU, CHICKENS WITH YOUR SNARKY ATTITUDE!

After the second barbecue pork on a bun (barbecue, not barbecued, because it was not cooked on a barbecue. Barbecue, I recently discovered, is incredibly complicated. See the comments on: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/is-it-ok-to-abbreviate-barbecue-as-bbq.aspx), I quit taking pictures. Oh, Hawk.

It sure was busy. Sorry I don't have any pictures of myself. My face was covered in food.
Mmmm.

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City of Champions photo from http://www.canadabulldog.com/where.