Most of the in-person social activities at the Edmonton Intercultural Centre (the old McCauley School) have been on hold due to COVID-19 restrictions since last spring. EIC was getting ready to start a community movie night right before the March 2020 closures but had to cancel most of its programming or move the events online in order to meet the AHS guidelines.

In February of 2021, EIC launched a new online event series called Cultural Fusion: World Flavours, to introduce Edmontonians to the many different cuisines that enrich our city. The series started on February 4th with Ethiopian/Eritrean Cuisine, also as a way to recognize and celebrate Black History Month. On February 11th, Vietnamese Cuisine was highlighted just before the Lunar New Year. In total, there will be 14 different volunteers teaching how to make dishes from 14 different cuisines.

The event is moderated by EIC Executive Director Sim Senol, so it is beyond a simple cooking class. Sim asks the volunteer chefs about their cultural traditions, common ingredients used in their cuisine, and just about anything else the participants are curious about. So far 125 people have signed up for this free event series, and over 80 people attended the 3 online events held in the first 3 weeks.

If you hadn’t heard about the series before, you can still tune in and watch the recordings of the events or sign up for the upcoming events available after the publication of this article.

More information about the Cultural Fusion: World Flavours series can be found on the EIC website at www.edmontoninterculturalcentre.ca/programs. The same page has a link for registration and will take you to further information about each cuisine.

EIC hopes to continue the series as an in-person activity once the pandemic restrictions are lifted and we can all safely gather at the cultural centre again. If you haven’t already done so you can follow @yegintrcltrlctr on Twitter or Instagram, or follow the Edmonton Edmonton Intercultural Centre page on Facebook for more information.

Article submitted by the Edmonton Intercultural Centre.