Taste of Edmonton 2007

Every year Edmonton hosts the Taste of Edmonton festival at Churchill Square in the heart of the downtown core.  Every year that I’ve been in Edmonton I’ve attended.  Every year it’s a mass of people meandering between tent kitchens to try the food from about 25 different restaurants, pubs and bars in the Edmonton area.

The food always seems to vary wildly from vendor to vendor, and this year was no exception.  Disappointingly, it seemed as though a lot of places were serving the same as they did last year.  I might be wrong on that, but it was the feeling I was left with after my initial circuit to narrow the options for my expenditures.

The cost was about the same as last year.  Most offerings were for 4 tickets ($1 per ticket) and there was a smattering asking 3 or 5.  Surprisingly, one of the 3 ticket offerings was ice cream, and with the temperature hovering around 30 Celcius there was no line up.  Of course that meant that I had to try it.

Lee Gardens — Szechuan Beef
What a disappointment. This was less than I would expect from a small rural town’s Western/Chinese restaurant. If you want to reproduce this, buy the Ginger Beef from M & M Meats, cook it dry and then add a weak sauce. The only positive was the portion size…but even that’s a negative when you’re trying to force it down your throat.
Price: 5 tickets
Value: 1 ticket

Krua Wilai — Pad Thai
This was an adequate dish. The taste was good, the portion size was generous and the vendor was quite cheerful.
Price: 4 tickets
Value: 3 tickets

Kyoto Japanese Restaurant — Green Tea Ice Cream
I still can’t believe that there wasn’t a line up at this tent! Ice cream was a must have with the temperature soaring and the event taking place in a concrete jungle. For the price of this, I was very surprised at how large the portion was. I was only expecting half of what I received, but I wasn’t going to demand less this day! The flavour of green tea was quite subtle, but still noticeable. The coloring made me feel like the cook had accidentally dropped an entire container of green food colouring into the bowl.
Price: 3 tickets
Value: 3 tickets

Hong Kong Bakery — Green Onion Cakes
Of all the tents that I walked by today, this was the only one that had a steady line up at it. Once I got to the front of the line I was greeted by a server who just took tickets and handed out plastic cutlery and napkins. Like all of the vendors, Hong Kong Bakery had two offerings. Even with their cheese cake sitting there in plain view, it was quite apparent that the serving staff were only expecting people to order the Green Onion Cakes. The constant demand kept meant that you were getting your cake right off the grill. In fact, I actually had to wait about 30 seconds for them to finish cooking one, throw it from the grill to the plating area, chop it into quarters and serve. Like the rest of the items I tried, the size of the dish was great. Even more importantly, these were to die for taste-wise.
Price: 4 tickets
Value: 4 tickets