Edmonton

Taste of Edmonton 2015 Recap

August 18, 2015
Am I a little late on this post? I’m sure many of you have read Graham Hick’s infamous article on this years Taste of Edmonton, from the Edmonton Sun. I’d have to agree and disagree though – yes, there was a lot of deep fried items from the vendors but it didn’t taste as bad as he made it sound. Anyways, that article is old news now ;). 
Taste of Edmonton will always be my favorite festival in YEG. Over a span of 10 days, Churchill Square in the heart of downtown is taken over by numerous tents, each representing a different restaurant and selling 2 food items. I actually had the pleasure of working the festival this year at one of the tents! I really enjoyed the festival environment that Edmonton has in the summertime! It does seem to get more and more popular every year. Someone called it Lines of Edmonton on social media hahah.
Now onto the food…
TOP ROW
1. Fantasia Cafe gelato. Their gelato is fresh, creamy, and flavorful. Fantasia makes the gelato locally in Edmonton in their gelato factory! My particular favorites were mint stracciatella, tiramisu, passionfruit sorbet, and wild strawberry sorbet. Their gelato can be purchased year-round at their cafe on Jasper Ave.
2. Sandwich and Sons montreal smoked meat sandwich. I didn’t enjoy this item. The sandwich was too dry from the bread and the lack of sauce. The meat was nicely portioned but flavorless. 
3. Hong Kong Bakery. green onion cake: MY FAVORITE ITEM!! These were delicious, I got them 3 times during the festival. Highly addictive. They were soft and fluffy and had the right amount of flavour from the green onions. Luckily, us yeggers can buy them frozen in Chinatown from their shop! GOC FOREVER.
4. Fantasia Cafe chocolate panna cotta and tuscan meatloaf with pesto-truffle aioli. The panna cotta was seriously heaven in my mouth! It’s made with their chocolate supremo gelato which strongly brings out the chocolate flavour. The tuscan meatloaf was tender and paired nicely with their creamy pesto aioli, made fresh.

BOTTOM ROW
5. Zinc banana bread pudding. The one item everyone can’t get enough of. It was topped with caramel sauce, whipped cream, and a bruleed banana. The banana bread was served warm and great for my sweet tooth.
6. O2’s Taphouse and Grill buffalo chicken bombs and loco bread. The bombs were interesting and tasty. They were filled with cream cheese, bacon, chicken, and hot sauce. They weren’t surprisingly spicy which I didn’t mind. It was an explosion of different flavours. On the other hand, the loco bread tasted like pizza bread. I felt like I wasted my tickets on it.
7. The Underground Tap and Grill mac and cheese ball. On first bite it was yummy. Then after it was meh. It wasn’t anything special, just a deep fried ball filled with mac and cheese goo-iness. The sauce that it was served was wasn’t tangy enough. 
8. Canadian Brewhouse kactus chips with homemade dill dip. Questionable whether the chips were bought frozen. They tasted like a softer version of potato chips without the salt. The sauce made up the lack of seasoning.
These were most of the food items that I had eaten, unfortunately I didn’t get photos of:
  • Normand’s Bistro smoked bison carpaccio and beef short ribs with mash. The beef short ribs and mash were SO tender and juicy! I am definitely coming by this restaurant for dinner.
  • Italian Bakery tiramisu in a cup. It lacked the coffee flavour that tiramisu usually has.
  • A Taste for Life Ukrainian Kafe & Bistro perogies. Soft and tasted homemade but it was a bit greasy.
  • Canicus Catering food truck wood fired proscuitto pizza. It was cool watching them make this on the back of a lookalike fire truck. The pizza was decently sized for the amount of tickets and tasty!
Until next year, Taste of Edmonton.