Heritage Weekend @ Edmonton, Alberta (Part 2)

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After we went back to the Legislature and then to West Edmonton Mall (no, it was only one visit to WEM, I am narrating things slightly out of sequence), some of Trinh’s friends were having dinner and they were very gracious to let me join them. The real kicker/interesting part? The person cooking (“L”) is a food blogger who drove from Calgary to cook the dinner! (No, he wasn’t there cooking for me but for their friends. I just happened to be there at the right time… Lucky? ). Here are the dishes “L” cooked.

OK, actually, this is a drink prepared for me…

(Warning, this post is a photo-essay of sorts. It contains a lot of pictures and, as a result, I have broken it in part 1 and this part 2).

OK, let’s try again, this is what “L” prepared for us!

Trinh was also gracious to share some of the goodies I brought for her from Vancouver.

I won’t deny that I am a wimp when it comes to alcohol. But, what surprised me was that I myself chose to accept some really unusual drinks mixed (like the one seen at the beginning of the post). Now, I won’t disclose what was in the actual mix but the combination, while extremely bizarre, it actually tasted “good”. (However, I can sense at the same time how some people will look at you really funny).

University of Alberta

Day two was mostly Heritage Festival, which will be the topic of a separate post. Afterwards, I did a solo walk through around the Old Strathcona area, specifically Whyte Avenue. (Trinh had a prior commitment but would join me afterwards). While it is no Robson Street or Gastown or Yaletown (drawing some comparison to Vancouver), I thought it had some character of it’s own. Alas, I was able to walk a good stretch of Whyte in no time…. But, there was a really good reason for me to go to Whyte: it is where Furusato is located and the place were I was going to meet no other than Chris of Eating is a Hard Part and Sarah of Shinning Happy Photos! I have met Chris on-line for quite some time already with both of us commenting in each other blogs. In a funny way, I told him that, next time he is in Vancouver, I would invite him to a sushi place of his choice (in his case, Shiro). However, who knew that I ended up visiting him in Edmonton first! The one part I feel guilty about was that Chris ended up paying for the bill… So, Chris, when you come to Vancouver, I promise I will more than make up for that one! (Hopefully it won’t be when I am out in a business trip…)

After dinner, we decided to stop for another gelato place. Well, I was on holidays so, technically, there were no restrictions!

Cantaloupe sorbet and Mango Tofulati

This time, we ended up sharing a scoop of sorbet and tofulati, a gelato made with soy milk rather than, well, regular milk. Again, no comparisons here but I will have to say they were quite good in its own ways. I liked how the sorbet was almost the consistency of ice cream, though you could still “feel” the ice crystals. And, as for the tofulati, you could actually forget it wasn’t dairy. The one bad part of the equation was that the mug it was served on was warm. WTH?! I guess they have it warm for coffee, not for this. Oh, well…

On my final day in Edmonton, I was treated with something really special: One of Trinh’s favourite dish, prepared by Trinh’s mom herself. Mom’s cooking FTW! Here, bánh xèo – according to Wikipedia, “Vietnamese savoury pancakes made out of rice flour, water, turmeric powder, and sometimes coconut milk (in the Southern regions), stuffed with slivers of fatty pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts and then pan fried“.

bánh xèo

There weren’t any pieces of pork but I don’t think it was needed, as despite there was a lot of bean sprouts (which tends to be bland by itself), the shrimp made up for it, not to mention there was some external help. So… How do you eat this? Well, take some lettuce, put some of this pancake mixture, wrap it with some herbs and dip in a fish sauce mix (in this case, Trinh suggested some chili sauce). After seeing how this was prepared, eaten and how much I liked it, I am really tempted to prepare some myself. Will see!

Finally, for the rest of the afternoon, we decided to take a small road trip… But, by mistake, we went the wrong way! In the end, we semi-randomly used a backup plan, which ended up being the Devonian Botanical Garden. I will have to admit I really liked this garden; however, because it was in the mid of summer, it won’t have been as “pretty” as it could have been during, say, spring. But, still…

Afterwards, we went to a Chinese restaurant, with another of Trinh’s friend. Did I mention you could actually find good Chinese food? Well, that’s the reason you will have to wait, as it is yet-another-pending post!

So, overall, how was this trip? I will have to admit I had almost no expectations but, in the end, I was really glad I went. I met great people (Trinh’s friends, Chris and Sarah, et al), not to mention I learned something really important about Edmonton: Unlike us here in Vancouver, they don’t take things for granted. In our case, we “expect” so many things (specially weather) that we can procrastinate on a lot of things. However, in the case of Edmontonians, they fully take advantage of what they have. Sure, parts of town looked “dead” but, still, if you really wanted to, you can still find things to do. So, unlike others, I won’t diss you and call your city “Deadmonton”. It is just a matter of what you make out of it.

Trinh, I really appreciate the time you took to show me around. Without it, I might have ended spending three days in West Edmonton Mall and ended up having that not-so-high opinion of your city. So, once again… Thanks! (I guess, I will have to out-do that next time you are in town! )

Tagged under: Edmonton • Photo Essay