Taste of Edmonton Festival

Taste of Edmonton Festival, Edmonton, Alberta

Taste of Edmonton Festival. The past year has given us all a shift in perspective. With the pandemic affecting everybody, there were days when finding a reason to smile was hard! After a one-year hiatus due to COVID-19, Edmonton’s annual “Taste of Edmonton” festival has returned and it has been nothing short of a lovely experience which reminds us that there is comfort and joy even from the simplest of things.

Who can resist a good feed of a variety of delicious food? We surely weren’t able to. This year’s festival took place at Sir Winston Churchill Square, where the event is usually hosted save for when there was construction being done and due to COVID restrictions. Seeing the activity and people moving about in a relatively normal fashion took us back to the days when we can freely walk around and enjoy the outdoors.

We chose a late afternoon, and the weather was just right—the sunlight streaming through the leaves of the trees that provided shade to the tables below where people enjoyed their food picks. The variety of food seemed endless! Each booth had three or four food items they specialized in and there were somewhere around fifty or sixty booths or food trucks. Some of the more memorable ones we saw and tried included green onion cakes, bratwurst on a stick, ginger beef, butter chicken… the list goes on and on, and the range of flavor profiles offered was amazing!

We walked along the many booths and browsed the different menus while comparing it to our palate and our hunger levels. At times like this, the opportunity to gain a lot of pounds and end up choosing more than you can actually consume presents itself and it can get very tempting to give in. This is where the importance of mindfulness comes in. We surveyed the options and took the opportunity to exchange thoughts with and ask questions to the food vendors before choosing our food carefully. We took our time and slowly worked our way around and sampled whatever struck our fancy. In a conscious effort to try the event’s offerings mindfully, we decided to share single orders which allowed us to try more of the different food available.

Conversing with the food vendors was a part of the whole experience. We asked them about their struggles, what makes them tick, and what they enjoy or not enjoy. A good laugh together always lightens the atmosphere and puts a smile on people’s faces. You’ll find that feeling that smile on your face has such a positive uplifting effect on your mood and can have a lasting impact on your day.

We found that one trip didn’t fully satisfy us so we returned for a second day to complete our rounds. There truly was so much to try, and our second trip allowed us to sample so many more dishes. It was a fabulous way to spend some time together over something we do on a daily basis but was made more special by all the new flavors. The food was great and the company was even better. It’s awesome to be able to take in experiences like this together—relaxed and wholly present in the moment.

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