Edmonton adventures 02

So! Today I went out and did some things. I was very tired for most of the day as I slept rather poorly. The fire alarm went off at around 4 AM; it was a false alarm, and rang for 5 seconds or so and then turned off. I didn't actually know it was a false alarm until I came down in the morning and heard the person at the front desk discussing it with someone, but at the time I figured, if it was a real emergency, it would have kept ringing. Anyway.

Went down to Acquired Taste Tea and picked up enough tea to last me, like, a year. Why have it shipped when I can buy it (and smell it) in person? They do have a pretty big variety and I ended up also picking up a few things that I hadn't had on my (long) list.

Getting there required taking the transit. I took an unfamiliar bus and survived, hooray. After a day of using it (for this and a few other things) I would say that so far I find Edmonton's public transit rather good, provided you're a tourist going to stuff on major bus routes.

Then in the afternoon, I went to the Rocky Mountain Food & Wine Festival. I've never been to this kind of event before, but when I found out that it as going on during the time I'd be here, I figured eh, why not! The emphasis is on the wine, rather than the food, but there was definitely plenty of munchies to try, which is good as I hadn't had lunch. I opted for the entry pass where you pay extra to receive a certain number of tickets to use on sampling, and I'm glad I did, because it took the "how much will I need?" question out of the equation, and the amount that I received was plenty.

There was a large selection of Canadian wineries there, but also a lot of international vendors, and I took the opportunity to sample some works from Romania and Moldova, as I've never tried anything from those regions. I can now say that Transylvanian whites are quite nice and the Moldovan sparkling blackcurrant wine I tried was fucking awesome.

For the Italian offers, I sampled some Zenato Valpolicella DOC, which is produced near Verona. The wine is a flavourful dry red adjacent to Amarone (one of my favourite kinds) and tastes very similar, but not as deep as Amarone. Unfortunately this wine itself was not possible to purchase at the festival; there are some places in Edmonton that I can get it, but not anywhere near where I had planned to go. Will think about it, though, as I liked it a lot and I know my mother would enjoy it too.

The highlight of the festival, though, was going to a seminar about sake. I've never tried sake before, so it was nice to learn a little about the history of it, how it's used in a culinary context, and taste some of it. It tastes very fresh and light! I really enjoyed it! Will have to explore this further. We tried both a modern clear kind, and a traditional variety, which is cloudy. Both were by Nakano.

It was an interesting experience and I'm glad I decided to try something new, but I don't know if I would go to an event quite like this again. I don't actually know much about wine; for the most part I just drink whatever my mom gives me, 'cause she makes it as a hobby. There were too many choices, and of course the festival was very busy, so I found the overall experience overwhelming. But I did really enjoy the sake seminar, so I think I might seek out some kind of small experience like that in the future, where it's more guided and focused on learning the history of the drink and how to appreciate it and so on.

And then in the evening I went to a concert! It was a performance of soprano, harpsichord, and baroque cello, organized by Early Music Alberta. The music was mostly 17th century - Claudio Monteverdi, Filippo Amadei, Allessandro & Domenico Scarlatti, and so on. It was VERY wonderful and I'm so glad that I went, even though I was very tired because it had been a long day.

It turns out that the Early Music Concert was part of a wider group of events; I missed the earlier ones (performances by various amateur ensembles, and also a Renaissance dance lesson) which is kind of a bummer, but at least I made it to the final concert. Honestly up until very recently I wasn't aware that there was an organization in Edmonton focused on early music; I was aware of one in Victoria but had no idea that there was one closer to home. I'll have to keep an eye on their schedules for the future.

So! That was a very busy day! But I had an interesting time. Hopefully tonight will not have any Surprise Interrupted Sleep in store for me.