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The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 novel coronavirus which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, on Jan. 29, 2020.supplied / Reuters
I am, sadly, deeply pessimistic about Alberta’s future.
It’s not about the COVID-19 virus. Public health measures backed by massive emergency government spending will hopefully spare us from the worst of the global pandemic.
The fear is how much the virus will cost – i.e. the consequences of the grinding of the provincial, national and global economy to a near-halt.
In Alberta, those costs are layered on top of the existing five-year collapse in the price of oil and gas prices, from $100 US a barrel to $50 US, and now a collapse of the collapse to $20 US.
These body blows are on top of the relentless pressure to kill the oil and gas industry entirely. Alber ...
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Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, founding director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology in a lab on the University of Alberta campus. The Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology is involved in the critical work to help stop the spread of the novel Coronavirus on February 10, 2020. Photo by Shaughn Butts / Postmedia
University of Alberta researchers, as they have done before, are hot on the trail of finding both a vaccine and a treatment for the COVID-19 virus.
Distinguished virologist Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, famous for developing the drug lamivudine for treating Hepatitis B, is working with the equally well-known Dr. Michael Houghton, testing anti-viral compounds for possible effectiveness against COVID-19.
In 2003-04, Dr. Houghton developed the leading vaccine candidate for the SARS outbreak. SARS – also of the coronavirus family — subsided before a vaccine needed to be mass-produced
At least eight research groups at the University of Alberta are working around the clock on ways to stop this global pandem ...
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While gorgeous to look at, Team NAIT's vegetarian dish for the Stuttgart Culinary Olympics still needs work. Photos by GRAHAM HICKS / EDMONTON SUN
Ernest’s Dining Room, NAIT – Culinary Olympic luncheons
10701 118 Ave.
nait.ca/ernests
780-471-8676
Food: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Hours (only when school is in session) : Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday, showcase buffet Fridays, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Dinner (pre-set menu) 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. Tuesday to Friday.
Special Olympic luncheon: $20.95 per person
Dinner (pre-set menu, excluding beverages, taxes and tip): $45 per person; lunch, average $12 per person.
By GRAHAM HICKS
Lovers of good food, especially those with champagne tastes hampered by the glum reality of beer budgets, here’s a chance to glimpse culinary heaven.
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Culinary Team NAIT is off to Stuttgart, Germany in February to compete in the prestigious, very global 20 ...
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The Turquaz Trio - left to right, chicken, beef kafta and lamb with fries, rice, salad, hummus and garlic spread. Photos by GRAHAM HICKS / EDMONTON SUN
Turquaz Kebab House
(Turkish & Lebanese Cuisine)
13310 137 Ave.
780-476-4511
turquazkebabhouse.com
Seven days a week, 11 a.m. to 9:45 p.m., 10:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two: Basic, $25, loaded, $50
By GRAHAM HICKS
The city’s Arabic/Middle Eastern community, both Christian and Muslim, is resolutely concentrated north of 132 Avenue.
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Its better-known restaurants, some eight to 10, each with particular specialties within the broad category of “Mediterranean”, rarely advertise outside that ethnic/geographical community.
Consequently, outside of donairs, shawarmas and baklava, mainstream Edmonton is little exposed to Middle Eastern fare.
A great pity. The food – kebab cubes, fatouche, ...
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Musical Theatre review
Class of '63 Rockin' Reunion
Mayfield Dinner Theatre
November 5, 2019 to January 26, 2020
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, HicksBiz.com
Tickets: MayfieldTheatre.ca
Don’t expect a plot line, or anything the least bit serious for that matter.
Just sit back at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre and drink in all the great (and silly) pop songs of the pre-Beatles ‘60s, laugh at the silliest of costumes from the Fabian/Elvis Presley/Nah Nah Nah days. Those outfits must have been worn by our grandparents when they were high school hipsters of their day! Okay ... our older sister and brothers!
As always with these classic Mayfield pop medleys, the eight musical actors – Mike Zimmerman, Brad Wiebe, Stephanie Pitsiladis, Melanie Piatocha, Kieran Martin Murphy, Pamela Gordon, Simone Denny and particularly possible-rising star Jahlen Barnes – are without peers when it comes to musical fun and interpretation.
Likewise, the under-appreciated Mayfield house band, co ...
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The historic Old Town of Warsaw, Poland, was rebuilt after being destroyed in the Second World War. GRAHAM HICKS...EDMONTON SUNEdmonton
By GRAHAM HICKS
Before leaving on a September-long extended holiday in Poland – both as tourist and as a volunteer English teacher – I had no idea what shape the Central European country would be in.
Three decades after the fall of communism, Poland has had 27 years of steady economic growth, an average 6% annual growth in family incomes. Yet our primordial impressions of Poland are still from Iron Curtain days: Of grime, grimness, hopelessness, poverty, garbage piled up in the streets, brown-outs and black-outs.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
Today, Poland is Europe’s biggest and best secret. As the ninth biggest country (by size) in Europe, with about the same population as Canada (38 million), it has fully emerged from its shell-shocked recent history – the devastation of the Nazi occupation of the Second World War, with ...
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Dry cubed pork, undercooked yuca and bland moro rice did not make for a satisfying entree at Bodeguita de Cuba. Photos by GRAHAM HICKS / EDMONTON SUN
La Bodeguita de Cuba
11810 87 St.
780-244-0104
labodeguitadecuba.ca
Delivery: Skipthedishes.com
11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mon. Wed. Thurs.
11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Fri.
6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sat.
11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sun.
Closed Tuesdays
Food: 2.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 3 of 5 Suns
Service: 3 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two, excluding tips, taxes and beverages: Basic, $30; Loaded, $60
By GRAHAM HICKS
Tasty beginning, excellent ending … and a disaster in between.
La Bodeguita de Cuba is a new mom ‘n’ pop restaurant on Alberta Avenue’s restaurant row, some 20 inexpensive eating spots scattered along 118 Avenue from Wayne Gretzky Drive to 105 Street.
Last week, the Alberta Avenue Business Association coordinated “Dine The Ave”, a promotion similar to the late-winter Downtown Dining Week, where just about all th ...
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XO Bistro's pork and shrimp grilled combo was everything you could ask for in a Vietnamese rice bowl. Photos by GRAHAM HICKS / EDMONTON SUN
Pagolac (Downtown)
10566 97 St.
780-425-1540
pagolacrestaurant.com
Delivery: SkiptheDishes.com
11 a.m. to 8 p.m. (9 p.m. Fri. + Sat.)
Closed Tuesdays
Food: 3 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 3 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
XO Bistro + Bar
10236 103 St.
780-761-9696
Delivery: SkiptheDishes.com, doordash.com
Tues. to Fri. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. (1 a.m. Fri.)
Sat. noon to 1:30 a.m.
Sun. noon to 11 p.m.
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Both restaurants, dinner for two excluding tip, taxes or beverages: Basic, $30; loaded $45
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By Graham Hicks
Is it ‘make new friends, but don’t forget the old?’
Or ‘out with the old and in with the new?’
It’s an interesting choice these days with Vietnamese restaurants.
The style is long-established in Canada.
Canadi ...
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Belgravia Hub Chef Max Pierce's chicken Dijonnaise.
Belgravia Hub
7609 115 St. (close to McKernan-Belgravia LRT station)
780-756-3344 (call for reservations)
belhub.com
No delivery listed
Tues. to Fri. 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (Friday to 11 p.m.)
Sat. 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Sun. 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Closed Mondays
Food: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two excluding tip, taxes or beverages: Basic, $40; loaded $60
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By GRAHAM HICKS
Don’t get me wrong.
I love all the Edmonton chefs who are media darlings, like Daniel Costa (Corso 32), Shane Chartrand (SC Damn Good Food) or Larry Stewart (Hardware Grill).
They are practically household names, as they should be. They are all wizards in the kitchen.
But in the background are scores of equally talented chefs, as adept in the kitchen, but with much lower profiles. Because they are not good at, or simply don&rsqu ...
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Tzin's mouth-watering bacon and maple/balsamic/apple crostini. GRAHAM HICKS/Edmonton SunEdmonton
Tzin Wine & Tapas
10115 104 St.
780.428.846
Tzin.ca
Online reservations: opentable.ca
No listed delivery service
Tues. to Sat. 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. (Fri. and Sat. midnight)
Closed Sundays and Mondays
Dinner for two excluding tip, taxes or beverages: Basic, $40; loaded $70
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4.5 of 5 Suns
By GRAHAM HICKS
Within a glowing review of Cyrille Koppert’s new Partake Restaurant some weeks ago, this column mentioned the Bodega Tapas & Wine Bars, Bar Bricco and Pip as other small restaurants offering “excellent light fare, cozy atmosphere and attentive service.”
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I forgot the mothership of the tapas-and-wine movement in town, the originator of the small-plate menu, cozy atmosphere with multiple wines by the glass … Tzin Wine & Tapas!
Now 12 years old and doing just fine ...
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