Edmonton's Heritage Festival - 2010

It wasn't our plan to go to the Heritage Festival this year. It was 9 o'clock in the morning when my brother-in-law called and said that their family was heading out.

I stumbled downstairs in my pajamas, all groggy, from my sleep about 15 minutes after that phone call and my hubby mumbles something about going to the festival, while packing backpacks, to meet his brother's family but we have to leave right away.

Yeahhhhh. Have I ever mentioned that I am NOT a morning person?

The next thing I remember, I am in the passenger seat of our car with an insulated to-go coffee cup in hand and kids in the backseats screaming about bouncy castles.

Ahhh, the joys of family life.

After spending 30 minutes losing track of which bouncy castles my kids were in and what animals they want to have their face painted like, I felt my stomach growl. I didn't have breakfast.

The years before, we always tried different foods, something out of the ordinary, for us. This year, we decided to go with things we knew and liked.

So, we bee-lined it to the Hungarian tent for langos topped with garlic salt. The Hungarian tent is the only one that actually serves this fried bread dough with the option of garlic salt, while others only offer icing sugar.

As I was sprinkling the garlic salt, the lady at the table asked me a question in which I didn't understand. I had to pull the "excuse me?" card. She was apparently speaking in Hungarian, and then spoke in English...

"Are you Hungarian? Because the Hungarian's like to eat langos with garlic salt".

"No, but many of the Slavic countries like their fried dough savoury too." I reply. I grew up eating fried dough, or mekice as we call it, with creamy feta and olives.

We also picked up the poppy seed cake there. Yes, we're picking out poppy seeds from our teeth the whole day and even the next day, but damn, it's so very worth it. So, so good.

The stop at the Canadian Pavilion was pretty disappointing. We ordered the poutine and the fries, they were pale. They were under-fried and not crispy. THE HORROR! But the gravy and curds were good but man, you got to get the fries right.

And we ended the day with some lemon and raspberry gelatos from the Italian tent. Yum.

All and all, a good outing. Edmonton's Heritage Festival is great for families (lots of kid things to do) and a great way to get out and spend the day. Walking from tent to tent, you see everyone having a good time, people genuinely happy to serve you and smiles shared with people getting together to celebrate all the different cultures. It's wonderful that our city does this every year and that people dedicate their time and labor to make it such a great festival.

Edmonton Heritage Festival

William Hawrelak Park

9930 Groat Road

Don't forget! There is no parking on-site. You will need to walk/bike or take the ETS (they have park 'n ride programs).