Broodje Haring and Panpipes
I spent the most recent weekend at the Heritage days in Edmonton, which is an annual event up here. They take one of the larger city parks, shut it down, and then host dozens of different ethnic and cultural groups. Each will generally have kind of an informational area, some presentations (often dancing), and then the food tents. It's a great opportunity to wander through and have foods or hear music that you really would never hear in the course of a normal year. I took advantage of the opportunity to try some Russian Kvas, some Turkish coffee, and many many more very odd foods. Broodje Haring for the non-Dutch among you is a bun with salted herring and a lot of onions. It sounds a little weird, perhaps, but tastes delicious. I was quite disappointed that the Peruvian tent ran out of Inca Cola.
In the picture above, they are playing panpipes, and other traditional South American instruments. Pretty neat really, I almost bought one of their CD's, but they're $20 a piece, and I didn't have that much cash on me. In any case, it's an all around pleasant way to spent a weekend and one of the better festivals in town for me. This coming weekend is the Edmonton Folk Festival, which I am tempted to go to, but these things aren't cheap, and I think Folk Fest is about $35 a day. Still, I am a pretty big fan of folk music, so maybe I'll still make it there.
I am reading Tête-à-Tête right now about Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. It's a fascinating book, as I had no idea about any of the personal circumstances surrounding the writing of some of his more famous works, like Being and Nothingness and Ethics. Perhaps more on that once I have finished reading it.