Tuesday, July 26, 2011

2011 Taste of Edmonton - part two

Well, our plans to head out early today were ended by the deluge of rain this morning. What a downpour!

By mid afternoon, it was looking safe to head out. My older daughter decided to stay home, but my younger daughter, Danielle, had to go to the library. It's right at the square the festival is being held at, so she decided to take it in after all.

2011 Taste of Edmonton

For our first tastes, we picked up a Hurricane Potato from Korean Village, then went back to Lit - Italian Wine Bar for their Basil stuffed Bocconcini with Prosciutto Wrap.

The Hurricane Potato is a really fun dish! Danielle is not a big potato fan. She likes her mashed potatoes and that's about it. She's the only kid I've know who didn't like french fries. So when she says she found the Hurricane Potato delicious, that's pretty impressive! *L* I found it very tasty as well.

As for the stuffed bocconcini...

Wow. That was SO delicious!!! Danielle didn't know what bocconcini was (I have bought it once before, but we really didn't know what to do with it), so she wasn't sure what to expect. When I asked her what she thought of it, all she could say was "MMMMMmmmm!!!" while savouring every bite. Both this dish and the Ahi tuna salad Nicole and I tried there yesterday took longer to get than at any other booth we tried, but they were well worth it. It was fabulous!

2011 Taste of Edmonton


Next up, we went to The Palace Banquets for their Bacon Wrapped Scallops, then to Kyoto for their Canada Maki and Tempura shrimp. These were all sure things for us. The scallops are a tried and true favorite and one of the things we get as a treat after we've tried all the new stuff we were interested in. I had the maki last year, but Danielle hadn't, so it's a new one for her.

As expected the scallops were wonderful. So much flavour! What a treat.

Of the other two, the tempura shrimp is another treat. The downtown location for Kyoto is near my husband's office, and is among the places on our list of restaurants to go to when we meet him for lunch every now and then. Their service kinda sucks, but the food is always really good. The shrimp did not disappoint. The tempura batter is light and crispy and it's cooked just right. We both liked it.

Danielle is new to enjoying sushi type foods. Last year, she wouldn't even try it, but since then she's developed a taste for the California rolls Nicole and I sometimes get, so she was willing to try it this year. She liked the maki, except she wasn't big on the cucumber. She just doesn't like cucumber much. Still, she found it good. I found the flavours very fresh and light, and really enjoyed it.

2011 Taste of Edmonton

Our next stop, we again went back to booths Nicole and I had gone to yesterday. I knew Danielle would like to try the chocolate shooters from The Sutton Place Hotel (I was right, she loved them), and I wanted to try the Grilled Hungarian Sausage with Potato Salad from Bistro Praha, which is the same place we got the marinated strawberries and vanilla whipped cream from.

Danielle is indifferent to sausage at the best of times. She found it good, but not good enough to actually eat all of her half. She liked the potato salad better - another surprise from her! I, on the other hand, found it amazing. Grilling really took the sausage a step up, and the potato salad had a wonderful lingering flavour. In fact, it was so good, I gave my chocolate shooter to Danielle, because I didn't want to spoil the flavours by eating something sweet. It was just so satisfying - comfort food at its best! In fact, as torn as I am by the prosciutto wrapped bocconcini and the bacon wrapped scallops, I really thing the grilled sausage and potato salad was my favourite dish of all.

2011 Taste of Edmonton

For our last dish, we went for stuff we like, but from places we've never been to before. We got hooked on Taro flavoured bubble tea just a few short weeks ago, but this one was from I Love Bubble Tea, which is new for us (sorry, can't seem to find a link for them). It was delicious. The tapioca balls on the bottom were a different size that we were used to, and the texture was remarkably like a slushie, but these were not negatives, by any means.

I was a bit nervous to try the pad thai. I love pad thai, but have only ever tried it from one place, which allows me to choose the amount of heat I want. Being sensitive to spicy foods, I always picked the least amount. This pad thai was from Numchok Wilai Restaurant (their booth was one of my favourites for their decoration). I was really surprised by the quantity they gave, which barely fit on the plate. It was mildly flavoured, so my concerns about heat were for naught. It was slightly sweet, which is not something I am big on, but quite tasty. The bits of sprouts added a nice crunch. It was one of those things I liked more, the more I ate of it. Danielle, on the other hand, doesn't care for pad thai at all. She took a small taste and that was it. Not her thing.

At this point, we'd used up all the tickets budgeted for this year.

Today we had a lot more hits than misses compared to yesterday, which was strangely disappointing. We've got a couple of new restaurants on our list of places to look for, that's for sure!

I'm already looking forward to trying more new things next year!

No comments: