The Pulse: Aug. 31, 2021

The profile of Filipino cuisine has continued to rise in Edmonton over the last several years, thanks to upstart businesses like Filistix, Kanto 98 St., and Yelo'd, as well as with the arrival of Filipino fast-food giant Jollibee in 2019. Now DRTY Ice Cream is adding an additional cultural touchstone for the local Filipino community with its take on sorbetes, or Filipino ice cream.

DRTY (pronounced "dirty") is the brainchild of Abby Ulanimo, who is half-Filipino and was born and raised in Canada. In 2019, she visited the Philippines for the first time and had a reverential initial encounter with a sorbetero (ice cream vendor).

"You can imagine it's plus forty degrees, you're so hot, and you hear this bell and when you turn around this guy has delicious frozen treats," said Ulanimo. "The sorbetero brings those feelings of relief and joy."

Ulanimo explained that sorbetes are typically made with coconut milk or cassava, as ingredients typically found in ice cream like eggs, milk, and cream are expensive in the Philippines. Sorbeteros, lacking access to refrigeration, would make fresh batches of sorbetes by hand daily, sold out of roving wooden carts.

Throughout its development, DRTY has gone through some recipe changes to adapt to the different context. "When we first started, we were using a cassava base," said Ulanimo. "But then we found that cassava flour cannot hold its integrity in the freezer. This wouldn't be a problem in the Philippines because their batches are never frozen overnight." DRTY has since adapted to using plant-based stabilizers in most of its ice cream flavours.

DRTY's name is inspired by the history of sorbetes in the Philippines. Ulanimo shared that when larger corporations began stocking grocery stores with their ice cream, those companies made efforts to brand sorbetes as "dirty" to discourage people from patronizing sorbeteros.

"Our name is such a conversation starter," said Ulanimo. "We are very passionate about highlighting the tradition and the culture behind sorbetes. If I can teach someone something, my job is done."

• Council has reactivated Edmonton's face covering bylaw. Edmontonians will once again have to wear masks while shopping for groceries, riding transit or eating at a restaurant. The bylaw comes into effect Friday and expires on Dec. 31.
• Alberta reported 3,056 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend, for a total of 11,426 as of Monday. Dr. Aisha Mirza, who works in the emergency department at Grey Nuns Community Hospital, told CBC's As It Happens that most new cases are among unvaccinated people.
• Edmonton Catholic Schools has revised its back-to-school guidelines on Monday — tightening its mask policy. Students (K-12) and staff will now have to wear masks at all times, including during classes.
• The Edmonton Elks are now requiring fans to be fully vaccinated or to show proof of a negative test to attend games at Commonwealth Stadium. The policy will take effect as of the Oct. 15 home game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
• Edmonton Emergency Relief Services (EERSS) is facing closure after the provincial government ended a long-standing lease agreement with the not-for-profit. EERSS, which helps people affected by poverty, newcomers and refugees, has operated in a surplus government building for the past 34 years, paying a $1-a-year lease.
• Edmonton Journal columnist Keith Gerein takes a deeper look at economic recovery in Edmonton's Chinatown, where social disorder and lockdown measures have contributed to approximately 30% of businesses closing their doors during the pandemic.
• In the absence of provincial government news conferences, a group of Alberta doctors began providing regular COVID-19 updates on Monday. The Protect Our Province: COVID Briefing is being spearheaded by the same group that protested the rollback of provincial health measures in July.

TalkMaze founder Ghalia Aamer is gearing up for a busy couple of months championing her own company and Edmonton's innovation community both locally and abroad.

The 19-year-old CEO is preparing for the G20 Young Entrepreneurs' Alliance Summit in October, as well as the 2022 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA). Aamer was also recently named to Edmonton's Innovation Growth Council, where she is aiming to advocate for student entrepreneurs.

Aamer, whose business connects students with resources to improve their public speaking skills, is hoping she'll inspire other young people to take action, and encourage the city's larger innovation community to "dream big when it comes to their businesses, to really think about making an impact at a global scale."

She attended the G20 YEA summit last year, but in addition to returning as a delegate, Aamer will also serve as a policy lead for the task force that will draft a set of recommendations for G20 leaders to act on. Her focus is on inclusion and equal opportunities.

"I hope to influence policy decisions to help make entrepreneurship more accessible to young entrepreneurs across the world," she told Taproot.

Visitors are booking more hotel rooms in Edmonton this year, but the industry has a long way to go to get back to pre-pandemic levels, according to data from the Alberta government.

For most of 2019, the occupancy rate for hotels in the city hovered around 55-60% — a pretty standard number when compared to hotels around the world. And it's no surprise that occupancy rates cratered when the pandemic began during the spring of 2020, as travel restrictions and other measures were put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The hotel occupancy rate in the city has made a slow climb upwards since then, but more than a year after the first crash, it's still only about half of what it was before.

This comes at a time when Edmonton is working towards defining the long-term future of tourism in the city. Earlier this summer, Explore Edmonton released its Tourism Master Plan, which considers the city's current tourist market and provides a road map for how to increase it over the next decade. The plan puts an emphasis on highlighting natural spaces, particularly the river valley, for potential visitors. Other goals include supporting festivals, culinary tourism, and more Indigenous history and heritage to attract visitors.

The city also recently became the first in Western Canada to sign on to the Global Destination Sustainability Index, a ranking of environmentally sustainable tourist destinations. Explore Edmonton hopes the move will not only be a boon to the city's hospitality industry but also push it closer to its larger environmental goals.

However, even with the master plan and new initiatives in place, it is likely to be a long journey back to normal for Edmonton's hotel industry. Explore Edmonton predicts tourist spending won't return to pre-pandemic levels until 2026.