Sit inside Pharos Pizza, in one of their 1970’s leather seat booths, and look across the street. Poised like a vulture studying its next meal is a Domino’s take-out counter. The ground zero of the fast food incursion into the Edmonton historical district of Old Strathcona happened a mere block down, where a KFC, a [...]

“We’ve gotta get Jack’s coffee sorted out before he gets here,” says Dominic. It’s only 7:15 – the market officially opens at 8 AM – yet there is urgency in Dom’s voice. I arrange the coffee bags faster.
Every Saturday since Catfish Coffee set up shop at the Old Strathcona Farmers Market, Jack sneaks in before [...]

Sunday morning, my shoulder will feel sore as hell. It’s getting punched repeatedly by a merciless bully. The bully’s name? .300 Winchester Magnum.
I line up my shot, remembering not to lean forward too close to the rifle’s sight; I don’t feel like shopping for a new pair of glasses with a black eye. My target [...]

“We’ve never shot before. We’re looking for something fairly small, just to get a feel for it.”
“9 mil,” answers the cashier without hesitation. She’s Asian, petite and cute, in her early twenties.
“Right! Ok. But we’d also like something more powerful. See, we’re fans of videogames, and there’s a gun…”
“Desert Eagle.” The cashier flashes us a [...]

I’ve been rereading my old blog entries from when I was back in Shanghai, and it’s starting to hit me: I miss being out of my comfort zone.
Edmonton is really nice, and quite comfortable so far (granted, this is the summer and not the dark end of February.) Montreal was also familiar very quickly when [...]

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Well, to be fair, that’s not exactly true. I’ve left cities before, and I’ve missed aspects of them a lot. So now, wisened, I get to enjoy things as they happen.
When Helene and I moved to Edmonton, I didn’t expect to like it very much. I [...]

Wild salmon and spinach pasta in sesame pesto
(all ingredients from the Farmer’s Market)
Click to enlarge
Another Saturday, another visit to the farmer’s market.
The Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market is easily my favorite thing about Edmonton right now. It’s one of those old-school food and craft markets, where hippie soapmakers rub shoulders with Ukranian grandmothers peddling pierogies. It [...]

Wow, has it been three months already?
You know how it goes… You see a friend every day, and you have tons of stories to tell them. But don’t see them for a year, and the next time you meet, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one interesting story to tell them. Know the feeling?
That’s a bit [...]

BioWare rocks. Case in point:
As last Friday was February 29th, EA Canada spontaneously decided to grant a free holiday to all Canadian employees. There’s your first advantage to EA’s takeover of BioWare! How cool is that?
So what’s a guy and his girlfriend to do on an unplanned day off in Edmonton in the middle of [...]

Now that Helene and I have been in Edmonton for three weeks, the question I get from my family and most of my friends is, naturally: how do you find it?
It’s a question I haven’t had the chance to fully figure out yet. Edmonton is definitely not a city that makes a strong first impression, [...]