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dinner @ Zenari's (& Banksyland!)

Late post from .. November.......

Had an early dinner at Zenari's with one of my besties & then we headed to Banksyland tour.

The appetizer: Gamberetti Sharka

Contain sauteed shrimp, basil, tomato sauce & chili flakes.

The spiciness creeps up on you! :O the 1st bite/taste was like "ooooh this is very sweet & tomato-y" & then you get a kick of sharp spiciness. It doesn't last long but it was a good spicy! The focaccia bread was great! Excellent with the sauce. The shrimp texture was meh... I don't know my shrimp species.. . they were medium-sized, & was over-cooked. You know when you eat shrimp that has like a mushy texture? I like my shrimps to have a bit of a crunch.

Susan's Gnocchi Tartufo (gnocchi with beef, mushroom, onion & tomato with truffle cream sauce) & my Salsicce Crostone (flatbread with Italian sausage, mozza, bocconcini & tomato sauce).

Susan's gnocchi was sooooo rich & creamy. Almost too much. She thought the same as well. We believe that's why they added the cherry tomatoes - to add a refreshing taste & texture.

As for my crostone. .. I really liked the crostone (the flatbread) last time I came so I ordered a diff topping this time. The combo of ingredients was very pizza-like lol so good! TBH, it's all about the carb. I didn't care about the topping much. Iuno.. the flatbread here is just so. .. crunchy & chewy at the same time.

The service wasn't great. I regret tipping 15% .. In general, I think 15% is ridiculous, esp when coming back from Korea, where there's no tip culture. It hurt.

We went on a Saturday- it was an early dinner at 5pm. Note it was also on Remembrance Day. There weren't a lot of ppl at the restaurant. Maybe our server was new. .. *shrugs* I don't know. I don't think senior/experienced servers would make such errors... our drinks were mixed up. Our dishes were mixed up. Like come on, there was only 2 of us. It wasn't a large group -.-" She came by a while later to ask how everything was & to light our tea light (as it was getting dark). She was literally on top of our food bcos we had moved the tea light holder to the other side (across, farthest from her). I didn't think that was good etiquette. Could have asked for it? Susan had leftovers so she asked for it to be packed up. She never came back... so she didn't get her food... We had elsewhere to be so Susan was fine with it but I was like. .. erm. So yeah, for me, I think I should have tipped at most 10%.

Here are some pics from Banksyland =D (Look up Banksy if you're not familiar bcos I won't be talking about it here. Just wanted to share some pics with you)

Projection on a wall - the balloon floats away

Okay so the wknd exhibition took place inside the Pendennis Building. The Edmonton stop was supposed to have taken place in Sept but due to some operational thing, they postponed it, went to other Canadian cities, then returned to Edmonton in November. The Pendennis Building is a rentable space located on Jasper Ave (the sketchier end) & has 4 levels. I've never been here before! I thought the exhibition being here was the perfect choice of location. The whole thing just vibed, you know?

Like I don't think the experience would be maximized if it were held in the AGA or City Hall. Each section of the space was like a diff theme of Banksy's work so I really liked the organizational aspect of it.

Overall, the mood was 'dark' & ambient, which matched the artist's subject matter.

Wall of interesting pictures

My fav

Hilarious

The exhibition had a mix of works: from the frame pictures to projections to statues like this. There was a bit of everything!

This space had a long video playing on a super long/wide-screen.

Banksy's cardboard series. This was my fav section of the exhibition- it talked about how Banksy uses diff media during diff time periods to demonstrate/emphasize diff themes.

The cardboard used isn't perfect- see that small incomplete tear? It has also been folded & some have holes (?likely bullet holes).

This was on the top floor, which, compared to the rest of the place, was well lit & bright.

I would love to take a course to learn about Banksy, honestly.

Saving this for last haha so this.. . is perhaps Banksy's most famous work "Girl with Balloon". I loved how they placed this blurb & the video projection in this space right here that was in the center of the main level, between the entrance & the exit. It was really the centerpiece.

Read up on this if you haven't already- super interesting!

Bye!

#food #dinner #friends #zenari #banksy #banksyland #banksyland tour #art exhibition