Sadly, I had to miss the Taste of Edmonton last year due to being out-of-province for school, but I tried my best to make up for the loss this year! P and I continued the tradition of splitting a full sheet and looking out for the best things to taste!
Day 1: July 19, 2015
 |
| First
stop was Mikado! We got the Kara-age Chicken (4 tickets), but the
owner, David remembered P taking photos for him and his wife with the
Northern Lights, and was so kind to offer us a complimentary Green Tea Ice Cream (2
tickets) with adzuki bean topping! Thank you, David!! |
 |
| Fairmont
Hotel MacDonald's "MAC" Scone with Whipped Cream and Berry Compote (3
tickets) and Pork Taco with Kimchi Slaw and Lemon Thyme Aioli (3
tickets). So good... |
 |
| Normand's Bistro's Beef Short Rib and Mash (3 tickets) and the Smoked Bison Carpaccio (3 tickets)! Deeelicious! |
 |
| Select's Mac 'n Cheese with Maple Bacon (3 tickets)! Unfortunately, it was the most underwhelming pick we tasted today... |
 |
| Sandwich
and Sons' Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich (3 tickets)! Pretty good, but
my taste buds have been spoiled by the real deal from Schwartz's in
Montreal... |
Day 2: July 23, 2015
 |
| Duck
Tots (4 tickets) from Attila the Hungry! I wanted to try these since
What the Truck?! but the lines were insane. Worth the wait. I mean, how
can you go wrong with duck and tater tots? |
 |
| Vegetable
Tempura (3 tickets) from Korean Village! Although not very Korean, they
offered a decent portion size and clusters of deep fried vegetable
goodness. Also self-serve tempura sauce and sriracha. |
 |
| Butter
Chicken (4 tickets) from Khazana! While not bad, I was slightly
disappointed. Texture and flavour-wise, it was great, but it didn't have
the kick of spice I'm used to getting from butter chicken. |
 |
| Bully
Mac (3 tickets) from Bully Food Truck! The cheesy flavour and
texturally-pleasing toasted bread crumbs made up for the other Mac 'n
Cheese we tried from Select last week. |
 |
| Last
but not least, the Dry Spicy Chicken (4 tickets) from The Ling Nan. The
Ling Nan had its own weird Food Network show way back when, but I never
got around to trying it. Honestly, it was alright. The portion size was
decent, and they were nice and crispy, but still just alright. |
This year, the full sheet had 40 tickets, and we used up 39 between the 2 days. Luckily, there is always a tent for donating leftover tickets, where proceeds will benefit one of the city's great orgs - this year, it was the Edmonton Food Bank.
P and I felt that we got a relatively good variety this time around, but there is definitely a trend of meat and fried food throughout. We also somehow opened and closed our tastings with some form of fried chicken... Not the worst way to go ;)
-M
