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Lindork’s Lists #48 – Skating at Hawrelak, downtown sandwiches, virtual comedy and more! (Non-Subscriber Version)
Things to Do This Week
Please note: Alberta has restrictions in place to address COVID-19. I do encourage you to try and support local businesses during this time, if you’re able, but in a safe way. Wear masks, sanitize regularly, avoid crowds, keep at a distance, shop alone, choose take-out and stay home if you are sick and choose digital options if available.
Hit the ice at Hawrelak Park—pond now open for skating
The pond at Hawrelak Park is now open for ice skating—hooray! Grab your skates and go! This is the best and biggest maintained skating surface in the City of Edmonton (I’m pretty sure lol). And its opening for the season is a sign that Edmonton’s longest-running winter festival (Silver Skate) is nearly here! This year isn’t a festival—but they’ll be offering alternative programming you can safely do on your own time, helping you celebrate and Create Winter Experiences this February. Can’t wait!
Stroll through the winter Botanic Garden for Luminaria’s final two weekends
Due to popular demand, Luminaria at the University of Alberta Botanic Garden has been held over to include a few more dates in these last two weekends of January! Stroll through candle-lit pathways, see the sculptures of light, enjoy live entertainment from a safe distance, catch a glimpse of Snow Sprites, wish upon a star and hang it on a tree, and more. Tickets are $20 for adults with discounted senior, student and kids rates too.
Take in a Comic Strip comedy show from home
The Comic Strip is now holding Virtual Comedy Shows—live from your own couch! Tickets for this Saturday, Jan. 23’s 8 p.m. virtual show are just $15 and features comedian Sean Lecomber and a special guest emcee. You also get two free tickets to any regular performance once the club reopens if you purchase a ticket to their virtual shows now.
Get your virtual ticket to the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Distress Line Fundraiser
On Jan. 27, the Canadian Mental Health Association’s annual Distress Line Fundraiser is going virtual. Since the pandemic began, CMHA Edmonton’s Distress Line has seen an increase in both calls overall, but also critical calls. The line provides confidential, non-judgmental, and short-term crisis intervention, emotional support, and resources to people in crisis or distress. It also supports family, friends, and caregivers of people in crisis and it’s a free service (thanks to donors and fundraising events like this!) Tickets are $75 and gives you access to a talk themed around how employers can support their staff in the workplace during a particularly stressing time (existing during a pandemic).
Celebrate Robbie Burns Night with a special haggis dinner
Celebrate Robbie Burns Night with a special haggis dinner! The Celtic Kitchen here in Edmonton is offering a Traditional Burns Dinner for four featuring haggis, clapshot, neeps, brussel sprouts, parsnip puree, and scotch gravy for $80. Pick up Jan. 23. Spotify also has a This is Robert Burns playlist to accompany your meal, and it’s typical to read his poetry during this celebration as well. You can find all 559 of his works online.
Food To Try This Week
All restaurants in Alberta are take-out/pick-up only (no dine-in service) until further notice.
Please continue to support local restaurants by ordering take out!
Grab an egg waffle and bubble tea from Tea Bar Cafe (10640 98 St.)
We’re headed into the final weekend of Chinatown Dining Week (ends Jan. 24), so if you haven’t tried one of the $10 or $18 deals being offered by 10 Chinatown restaurants and bakeries, this is the weekend to do it! Feel free to copy my preferred style of picking up multiple items at multiple stops (they’re all close to each other in Chinatown after all!) like a take-out food crawl. I really enjoyed and recommend my $10 bubble tea (I got passionfruit tea with pearls and jelly) + original egg bubble waffle from Tea Bar Cafe, but any of the deals would be a great pick! Enjoy and support these businesses!
Eat spring rolls, vermicelli and soup from Pho Hoa An (9653 106 Ave.)
While you’re in Chinatown, Alycia recommends you give Vietnamese restaurant Pho Hoa An a try! This restaurant is tucked away (look for the green canopy), hidden across the street from the the south side of Lucky 97. From Alycia: “Jenny is the owner and she said business has been very slow lately. I will probably die without her spring rolls and bun.”
Get a Farrow Sandwich at their new downtown location (10542 Jasper Ave.)
Congratulations to Farrow Sandwiches on the opening of their new downtown Edmonton (Jasper Ave) location! The new sandwich shop is where the old Wishbone was (above Lockstock and Red Star), operating 8-2 p.m. every day (hours subject to change). If you’ve never been, help celebrate their new opening by trying a sandwich from this Jasper Ave spot. Get that Grick Middle!! (fried egg and bacon sandwich). But I love all their rotating creations (Grick Middle is on the menu no matter what!) do a vegan sandwich option too.
Send an Alberta Cares Package: Chocolate Edition (order online)
Alberta Food Tours has launched a Chocolate Edition of its ‘Alberta Cares’ Package’—where you can send comforting Alberta-made chocolate goodness to family, friends, team members and clients across Canada. From AFT: “Deliver self-care in a box and do it with all your heart!” The boxes are $99 each and contains artisan chocolate made by 11 Alberta chocolate makers and confectioners including Edmonton’s JACEK Chocolate, The Violet Chocolate Company and Colleen’s Chocolates. (Also how cool is it that our three main chocolatiers are all women?)
Boost Nai Nai Mie Noodles (check out their ATB BoostR campaign)
Nai Nai Mie Noodles, a locally-owned online noodle shop I profiled on my blog last year, is running an ATB BoostR campaign to help upgrade their equipment and increase staffing. This week, consider ordering some of their frozen noodle packs (Schezuan is my favourite!) or boost their campaign to receive specific noodle perks.
New On The Blog
I went on a little Chinatown Dining Week take-out food crawl and blogged about my stops. I encourage you to do the same too as we head into the final weekend (Sunday, Jan. 24 is the last day to take advantage of the $10 or $18 deals). Pictured above are the macarons deal from Macarons & Goodies (10548 101 St.)—six for $10 (or you can get two mini 5” pies for $10 too, or their $18 deal is one large 10” pie!) I’m hoping to try a few more dishes and support a few more Chinatown businesses this weekend and I encourage you to safely do the same!
From the Blog Vault
I don’t know whose bothering to make resolutions this year with it being a global pandemic and all, lol but if you were looking for advice on making and keeping New Year’s Resolutions, I blogged some tips around this time last year in a sponsored post with the financial planning experts at ATB Financial / ATB Prosper.
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