Recap: Heritage Festival 2013!

Heritage Festival 2013 at Hawrelak Park.

Heritage Festival 2013 at Hawrelak Park.

On Sunday I went to Heritage Festival with my friend Pam! This year Heritage Fest featured 60 pavilions representing over 85 cultures from all around the world.

Pam + Me + 60 tickets = Lots of delicious fun at Heritage Festival!

Pam + Me + 60 tickets = Lots of delicious fun at Heritage Festival!

The event is still a brand new experience for me. My first time attending was in 2011, and for some reason Mike and I couldn’t go last year, so this time around was only my second time ever attending the super fun, delicious and multicultural summer festival.

Some of the yums at Heritage Festival!

Some of the yums at Heritage Festival!

Pam and I tried the following dishes:

  • Dolma (ground meat, rice, onions, lemon wrapped in grape leaves) from Iraq (7 tickets)
  • Mititei, bun, perogies and cabbage rolls from Romania (6 tickets)
  • Pretzel from Germany (3 tickets)
  • Patatas (fresh cut potatoes served with fresh garlic mayo) from Nicaragua (7 tickets)
  • Nayama (beef skewers) from Kenya (6 tickets)
  • Ice coffee from Greece (3 tickets)
  • Spiced beef curry on steamed yellow rice with salad and date chutney from Sri Lanka (7 tickets)
  • Tike Chicken (chicken wrapped with pita bread served with salad) from Kurdistan (7 tickets)
  • Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas from Peru (4 tickets)
  • Crepe Baies Rouges (crepe topped with red berry coulis and a teaspoon of whipping cream) from France (7 tickets)
  • BBQ Shish-kabobs (Marinated pork shoulder in seasonings with bun and onions) from Croatia (5 tickets)

It felt like we tried so much and yet not enough… the Heritage Fest menu is massive and you really need to go all three days to try everything, I think! Pro tip: Share with friends! Then you can try many items for less money. Pam and I each only spent $25 the whole day. That’s pretty good if you ask me! Another pro tip: bring your own water bottles!! Don’t waste your precious tickets on drinks (unless they are delicious and exotic lol. Pam bought the ice coffee, not me).

I love Nicaragua Patatas!!

I love Nicaragua Patatas!!

We tried to specifically try dishes from countries we’d never (or rarely ever) eaten from before. I thought Romania’s cabbage rolls were dynamite. SO GOOD! The chicken tike skewer from Kurdistan was also so delicious. Really, Heritage Festival can be all about the meat on a stick, lol. So it’s not surprising that we tried three different kinds of skewers. The ones from Kenya were also really good. Crotia’s were a touch too salty but still tasty. My go-to festival dish always seems to be the giant dish of chips so Nicaragua’s Patatas with garlic mayo was fantastic! We didn’t try anything from the Asian booths for obvious reasons – we eat Asian food every week (and many times multiple times per week) but a lot of dishes from the Asian booths sure looked and smelled amazing…

Capoeira performance outside the Brazil tent at Heritage Festival!

Capoeira performance outside the Brazil tent at Heritage Festival!

Sprinkled in between eating were all of the wonderful performances! We saw dancers from Brazil, Thailand, China, Ireland, and much much more.

Lots of great photo opportunities at Heritage Festival. :)

Lots of great photo opportunities at Heritage Festival. :)

There’s also a ton of different fun photo opportunities at Heritage Fest! :)

Lots of great photo opportunities at Heritage Festival. :)

Lots of great photo opportunities at Heritage Festival. :)

We had such a great time! We arrived early around 11:30 a.m. and I think that’s really the best time to go. The food ticket line-up was non-existent, and there were no line-ups at any of the tents. By the time we left around 3:30 p.m. the food ticket line-ups were ridiculously long and the whole park was completely packed. The weather was also a bit cooler earlier in the day.

Mike couldn’t go this year because he was working out of town which just makes us look forward to next year’s Heritage Festival even more! I can’t say enough good things about this summer festival. :)

Check out the Vine I did of some sights & sounds of the fest:

So did you go to Heritage Festival this year?! What was your favourite dish?

Linda

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