What I Ate at the Edmonton Heritage Festival

Is it just me or was the Heritage Festival not always called Heritage Festival? Didn’t it used to be called Heritage Days? Or am I just confused? Or is it the Mandela effect?? Yeah, I’m going to have to go with the latter here.

So anyways, the Edmonton Heritage Festival is my FAVORITE festival in Edmonton. I know we’re known as the Festival City (we actually are, I’m not making that up) and we have a lot of really great festivals, but Heritage Fest leaves them all in the dust. It’s a three day long festival that celebrates Alberta’s cultural diversity by featuring 85 different cultures in over 60 pavilions with food, entertainment, artwork and crafts, clothing and a whole lot of musical and dance performances!

Although I do love the performances, my favorite part has got to be the food. It’s a ticket system where you buy tickets ($1/ticket) and redeem them at booths of your choosing for food items ranging from 3-15 tickets! Although I try to be adventurous, this is my fifth year in a row going and I know all my favorites by now (AKA the mango sticky rice) so don’t judge me on how basic and “white-washed” a lot of this food seems. I am a very adventurous eater and I love trying cultural foods all year round, not just at this festival!

Rating Scale:

★☆☆☆☆ – Would not order again

★★☆☆☆ – Nothing special

★★★☆☆ – Thoroughly enjoyed it

★★★★☆ – So yummy, highly recommend!

★★★★★ – I can’t stop thinking about it, my mouth is currently watering

---

Australia

Kangaroo Slider – 6 tickets

Australian bush tomato and pepper berry relish served on a bun

★☆☆☆☆

Chinese Pavillion

Ginger Beef – 8 tickets

Strips of beef with ginger sauce

★★★☆☆

France

Crêpe Coulis Frais – 7 tickets

Crêpe with berry coulis

★★☆☆☆

Ireland

Snow Cones – 3 tickets

Blue raspberry and rainbow (blue raspberry, lemon-lime, and cherry) syrup served over shaved ice in a paper cone

★★☆☆☆

Japan

Bento – 9 tickets

Selection of Karaage (deep fried chicken), Yakisoba (noodles), Takoyaki (octopus dumplings), and Hiyayakko (tofu with ginger and sauce)

★★★☆☆

Malaysia

Fresh Young Coconut – 7 tickets

★★★☆☆

Mexico

Chocoflan – 6 tickets

Chocolate cake with caramelized sugar and baked flan

★★★★☆

Nashville

Veggie Plate – 6 tickets

Corn pudding, green bean casserole and cornbread

★★★☆☆

Fruit Tea – 3 tickets

Orange juice, pineapple juice, lemonade and sweet tea mixture

★★★★☆

Banana Pudding – 4 tickets

Bananas with vanilla wafers and custard

★★★★★

Peru

Choco Banana – 5 tickets

Chocolate covered frozen banana

★★★★☆

Churros – 5 tickets

Deep fried dough covered in caramel and sprinkled with icing sugar

★★★★★

Taiwan

Taiwanese Bubble Tea – 6 tickets

Traditional black tea, milk and black pearl tapioca

★★★☆☆

Spring Roll – 2 tickets

Pork and veg wrap

★★☆☆☆

Thailand

Mango Slices with Sticky Rice – 5 tickets

Coconut rice sweetened with coconut milk and mango slices

★★★★★

Vegetarian Pad Thai – 7 tickets

Rice noodles stir-fried with tofu, bean sprouts and peanut sauce

★★★★★

Venezuela

Quesillo – 6 tickets

Caramel-filled vanilla flan

★★★★★

---

Have you ever been to the Edmonton Heritage Festival or a different one that your city puts on? What’s your favorite food? Tell me everything!!

Check out my other What I Ate posts:

What I Ate in Vancouver (Round 2) – https://when-im-older.com/182061048883-2/

What I Ate in Vancouver (Round 1) – https://when-im-older.com/172104339882-2/

What I Ate in New York – https://when-im-older.com/123377506920-2/