Taste of Calgary

Can we just say YUM? The Taste of Calgary event was held in Eau Claire in Calgary which is located between downtown and Prince Edward Island. A beautiful spot where Calgary hosts a number of outdoor events over the summer. Lucky for us it is about a 50 minute walk from our air b and b so we decided to wander down on our free Saturday after our friends had recommended the event.

The walk in and of itself was a little eventful after we found a temporary pen of goats sitting just off to the side of one of the main roads in Calgary. This was quite bizzare! Then as we were almost at the event we noticed a plethora of people carrying one or two phones and staring intently at them. We soon realised that these people were playing pokemon on their phones. We didnt event realise that people still played this so it gave us a little laugh and put us in a great mood to try exotic food. We reached the Taste of Calgary event and our senses were overwhelmed with the smells, sounds and colours of the event.

In true Canadian style the event was exceptionally well managed, signed and had many people dressed in Taste of Calgary shirts who were available to assist you with any questions. Events in Canada are also exceptionally inclusive and environmentally friendly with people standing buy each rubbish station making sure you put the correct rubbish in the correct bin e.g. food waste in one, recyclables in another, bottles and cans in a different one and everything else in the last type of bin.

But enough about the event set up and lets dive into what we did. The event required you to purchase tokens/tickets which were $1 each. These tickets could then be used to purchase food and drinks. There were many many stalls and each sold about 4 or 5 dishes or drinks. The most expensive items were worth 5 tickets. You found something you wanted to try and handed over your tickets and received a tasting plate size amount of food. This was great because it meant you could try so many different types of food. I did try to take photos of all the food we ordered but unfortunately missed the first two items, one of which was the angus steak bites which were my favourite (these came as a recommendation from our friends who had been a couple of days earlier).

Lets get into the food (we shared each one between us so we could taste more options):

Satay chicken skewers, Columbian chicken empanada, Pulled pork slider with mini corn bread, VERY spicy calamari (not pictured), Cheese puff (not pictured) and Angus beef steak bites with the most delicious sauce (not pictured)

After the food we decided to check out the alcohol on offer. They had everything from cocktails, beer, wine, spirits and got old soft drink (pop) and water. The adults zone where we tried these drinks also came with bar tables and a live band which was an awesome way to spend some time in the beautiful sunshine. We stayed for about half an hour in this section and tried the following drinks:

Spice Girls Sour, Peach Bellini, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cocktail and Blonde beer (not pictured).

After we finished with the drinks Brendan was determined that we find one last item... Desert! Brendan had a peanut butter raspberry jam ice-cream sandwhich and he was in heaven!!! I opted for a not so desert item - a cheese bite and chorizo stick. YUMMO.

With our bellies full to bursting and our taste buds elated we strolled home to get ready to video call some family back home. It was an excellent day.