Lindork - Linda Hoang

11/12/2025

My City of Edmonton Chinatown Vibrancy Project the Chinatown Chow Down, is BACK for a second season! 🎉

From December through to end of March 2026, please join me for low-cost Group Lunches, Group Dinners, and Food Crawls, and participate in a self-guided Chow Down Challenge exploring and supporting Chinatown eateries while collecting stickers to complete different food routes/categories in your Chinatown Chow Down passport! 😋 Complete different sections of your passport for a chance to win Chinatown food prizes including gift cards, 10-course meals and private food tours! There are even Chinatown events you can even get stickers if you attend.

Tickets to the Chinatown Chow Down events do sell out (and quickly) but the self-guided passport can be done at your own pace throughout the next few months.

See the upcoming Group Meal schedule:
https://www.chinatownchowdown.ca/group-lunches-dinners

See the upcoming Food Crawl schedule:
https://www.chinatownchowdown.ca/chinatown-food-crawls

Learn more about the Chinatown Chow Down Challenge:
https://www.chinatownchowdown.ca/chow-down-challenge
(print your own passport or get it from participating restaurants)

📸 by Janice Saxon Photography.

Restaurants featured in this post include Cô Chín Saigon, Gui Lin Noodle House, and 97 Hot Pot. All three are locations on the passport where you can dine and collect a sticker!

📍 Chinatown, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

04/12/2025

Popped into Forno Flatbread Co. in south Edmonton for a quick breakfast bite before a nail appointment next door (V5 Nails Salon & Spa) and was super happy with this Akkawi and Mozza Cheese Pie flatbread (Lebanese manoush'eh).

Manoush'eh is the national "pie" of Lebanon and there are different fillings you can get including Zaatar, cheese and zaatar, meat pie, meat pie and chese, sujuk (fermented sausage) and cheese, spinach and cheese, and more options!

Akkawi cheese is a white brine cheese named after the Palestinian city of Akka and this was my first time having it! Melted in the oven with mozzarella on freshly-made bread, this was a delicious and filling quick breakfast.

I look forward to trying a different manoush'eh with each visit!

Also worth noting: the restaurant is actually Lebanese Italian cuisine—so their tasty flatbreads they use as pizzas too.

📍 Forno Flatbread Co.
3418 99 St NW
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

24/11/2025

NEW SANDWICH SHOP IN WEST EDMONTON! 🍞🥖🥪

We popped into Mother Dough Bread Co. over the weekend after our friends who live in the neighbourhood raved about the sandwiches and chili (in a bread bowl!) By the time we got there they had no more bread bowls left, so we opted no chili this time (bread bowl or bust, I say lol), but we did enjoy the sandwiches we tried:

😋 Chef's Ham & Gouda - Italian ham, gouda, grainy mustard, arugula, hot peppers on sourdough (the hot peppers are excellent if you love a little kick!) - $13

😋 Herb Roasted Chicken - breast with sundried tomato pesto, mayo, arugula on a baguette - $17

😋 Kids Grilled Cheese with Garlic Butter, Cheddar on Sourdough - $6

They come out fresh and fast, and fairly sizable. Find hot and cold sandwich options, on sourdough, focaccia or baguettes. They also had some cute sandwich merch for my hardcore sandwich folks out there lol.

You may recognize the branding or the bread a little bit, Mother Dough Bread Co. actually started as part of Alberta grocery store Freson Bros. They felt like the quality of their breads and sandwiches could stand alone and opened this storefront earlier this November.

Let me know if you've tried it (in grocery store or the new standalone store!) Looking forward to having the chili bread bowl on next visit!!

📍 Mother Dough Bread Co.
21742 92 Ave NW
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

20/11/2025

SIGN UP TO BE A HOLIDAY HAMPER ELF! ❤️💚🎄

Mike and I are looking forward to volunteering as "elves" for the Holiday Hamper Foundation again this year. We sign up to purchase holiday groceries for a local family in need. Right now the organization is in need of folks to sign up to support large or extra large families.

It's a pretty straight-forward process! You receive a list of groceries to purchase, you purchase, and then deliver to the family on Delivery Day (which is on Saturday, Dec. 20 this year).

We've been doing it for many years now and is one way we try to give back during the season.

Would love to hear different ways you support the community during this time of year in the comments!!

And if you are able to, please click to learn more sign up to the Holiday Hamper here: https://www.holidayhamper.ca/sign-up

(📸: photos from previous year Holiday Hamper Delivery Days!)

15/11/2025

BUY ONE GET ONE FREE ICE CREAM SCOOPS AND PINTS 🍦 at Little Bon Bon Ice Cream in Chinatown this weekend only!

The ice cream shop (part of the Yelo'd Ice Cream family) is shutting down the Chinatown location for winter. 🥹 Help clear out their fridge full of tasty Asian-inspired flavour ice creams (we grabbed six pints today lol) and come for a final lick 😋 before they close for the season.

You’ll still be able to find Little Bon Bon at events like Chinatown Dining Week or Lunar New Year celebration (and of course their Yelo’d shop in Old Strathcona is still open!)

Just a general reminder as well to support your local Chinatown businesses through this typically slower winter season. 🙏🏻

📍 Little Bon Bon Ice Cream
9960 106 Ave.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
OPEN 12-8 p.m. Fri, Sat, Sun

06/11/2025

Just a little reminder (you deserve good things!) And also the Mango Matcha Zen from BTCL Bubble Tea Coffee Lab is great. 🥭🍵☺️

📍 Bubble Tea Coffee Lab has two locations:
100 King St #3, Spruce Grove, Alberta
AND
1037 Keswick Dr SW, Edmonton, Alberta

06/11/2025

You've got to plan to grab tickets to the Italian Centre Shop's annual FESTIVAL OF CHEESE 🧀 fundraiser—it sells out every year!

The Festival of Cheese raises funds for the University Hospital Foundation and features 20+ different varieties of cheese from all over the world with wine, beer and non-alcoholic drinks, giant cheese wheel cutting demonstrations, and entertainment!

At this year's sold-out event, the UHF said they were so thrilled to have both a Festival of Trees AND a Festival of Cheese fundraiser that supports patients each year. 💛

I was invited to the festival as a guest and got to crack open a giant wheel of Emmental cheese with the Italian Centre crew. (I won't quit my day job lol)

Best part if you missed the Fetsival of Cheese, you can still shop a huge selection of cheeses at any Italian Centre location around Edmonton (and Calgary)!

This year’s festival was held at the Italian Centre in west Edmonton. Next year: south side location! Be sure to follow thge Italian Centre Shop and watch for tickets on sale next fall.

📍 Italian Centre Shop
(5 locations in Edmonton & Calgary)
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
(hosted)

04/11/2025

Hi everyone! If you know or are a chef, restauranteur (or want to be one), my parents at King Noodle House (Pho Hoang) and our family have decided to sell our secret, authentic, family Vietnamese pho recipe, passed down three generations from pho’s birth place in Northern Vietnam, to you, here in Canada.

We have been serving our authentic, Vietnamese noodle soup out of our small, family-run restaurant in Edmonton, Alberta for 30 years (since 1995). But our soup recipe goes back much farther than that, originating in the 1920s, in the birthplace of pho—Hanoi in Northern Vietnam.

Our parents are preparing to retire, and us kids just aren’t ready to take over. But we don’t want to keep arguably the best pho broth in North America to ourselves.

So as a family, we’ve decided to spread the love and sell the recipe—including one-on-one training—to select buyers to ensure that the King Noodle pho legacy lives on.

Many have asked over the years, and we've said no.

But we’re finally ready.

Serious buyers only are asked to fill out the inquiry form linked below, and we’ll reach out to discuss. You may already have an existing restaurant and want to integrate our recipe into your menu. Or you may be wanting to start a restaurant, and wish to launch with our pho.
You do not need to live or operate in Edmonton to purchase the recipe, however you will need to arrange to be in Edmonton to complete a training program in our kitchen as part of the agreement.

Our delicious pho recipe, the ingredients and its preparation, has been passed down three generations, starting in Hanoi in Northern Vietnam with our great grandparents, before moving to Southern Vietnam with our grandparents, then across the ocean to Canada and here in Edmonton’s Chinatown with our parents, and now potentially, across the province, country, and world again, through you.

This is an exciting and limited time opportunity to be part of the King Noodle legacy.

Thank you for your consideration.

Learn more and fill out this form to express serious interest in purchasing the recipe: https://kingnoodlehousepho.ca/were-selling-our-recipe/

You can also send email inquiries to:
[email protected]

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE RESTAURANT CURRENTLY?

Our building is also still for sale but we are still operating as is until retirement. Selling the recipe doesn't change that.

We invite the community to come support our restaurant in Chinatown until we retire.

We are open Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Thank you for your support!

WE'RE SELLING OUR SECRET RECIPE.

Hello everyone, our family has decided to share our secret, authentic, family Vietnamese pho recipe, passed down three generations from pho’s birth place in Northern Vietnam, to you, here in Canada.

We have been serving our authentic, Vietnamese noodle soup out of our small, family-run restaurant in Edmonton, Alberta for 30 years (since 1995). But our soup recipe goes back much farther than that, originating in the 1920s, in the birthplace of pho—Hanoi in Northern Vietnam.

Our parents are preparing to retire, and us kids just aren’t ready to take over. But we don’t want to keep arguably the best pho broth in North America to ourselves.

So as a family, we’ve decided to spread the love and sell the recipe—including one-on-one training—to select buyers to ensure that the King Noodle pho legacy lives on.

Many have asked over the years, and we've said no.

But we’re finally ready.

Serious buyers only are asked to fill out the inquiry form linked below, and we’ll reach out to discuss. You may already have an existing restaurant and want to integrate our recipe into your menu. Or you may be wanting to start a restaurant, and wish to launch with our pho.

You do not need to live or operate in Edmonton to purchase the recipe, however you will need to arrange to be in Edmonton to complete a training program in our kitchen as part of the agreement.

Our delicious pho recipe, the ingredients and its preparation, has been passed down three generations, starting in Hanoi in Northern Vietnam with our great grandparents, before moving to Southern Vietnam with our grandparents, then across the ocean to Canada and here in Edmonton’s Chinatown with our parents, and now potentially, across the province, country, and world again, through you.

This is an exciting and limited time opportunity to be part of the King Noodle legacy.

Thank you for your consideration.

Learn more and fill out this form to express serious interest in purchasing the recipe: https://kingnoodlehousepho.ca/were-selling-our-recipe/

You can also send email inquiries to:
[email protected]

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE RESTAURANT CURRENTLY?

Our building is also still for sale but we are still operating as is until retirement. Selling the recipe doesn't change that.

We invite the community to come support our restaurant in Chinatown until we retire.

We are open Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Thank you for your support!

29/10/2025

Recently ordered the Family Tray for 3 from Shawarma & Mediterranean Flavors and we were thrilled with the amount of delicious food it included. 🤤

I only took a photo of the meat and rice tray (📸 pictured here, chicken, beef and donair), but our order also came with a stack of pitas, pickled vegetables, garlic sauce (yummmmmmmmm!), hummus, garlic potatoes and a big tray of salad! $74.

We also ordered extra garlic sauce because obviously lol.

Will do take-out from them again!! 😋

📍 Shawarma & Mediterranean Flavors
17030 107 Ave. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

28/10/2025

It's the final week to visit Dolly's Cocktails in Downtown Edmonton for the Black Lagoon Pop-Up featuring scary (and tasty) Halloween-inspired cocktails (non-alcoholic options available too) + food! ☠️🔮🪄 (available until November 2!)

We enjoyed our spooky drinks:
The Nocturna Colada ("The Pina Colada of your darkest dreams")
Black Tide ("A tropical concoction sure to raise the dead")
- both come in scary glassware,
plus the non-alcoholic
White Zombie ("a frighteningly tasty spiced tropical potion")
and Window Maker ("An eerie tipple that haunt your nightmares".)
You'll also need to get the "Grave Digger" dessert. 😉 Comes with eyeballs and everything lol.
And on the regular menu, I am a big fan of their BBQ Corn Ribs!

Dolly's also always knocks it out of the park with their decor and Halloween is no exception.

Enjoy!!

📍 Dolly's Cocktails
9902 109 St.
Edmonton, Alberta

* Thanks to Dolly's for gifting us the spooky drinks & food *

25/10/2025

Our first meal out * in Edmonton since we returned from our Asia trip was at... an Asian restaurant 😅 - We went for Katsu and Korean fried Chicken at Nara Katsu (NARA chicken and tonkatsu's sister restauarant in Old Strathcona - Whyte Avenue) and as with previous visits, it totally hit the spot. 🤤

Their original katsu (breaded and deep-fried cutlet) recipe dates back to 1999, and it's gooooood. Mike had the curry pork katsu, I got the cheese pork katsu (just can't resist the cheese pull lol), and Benjimin got the regular pork katsu. We also decided to try their bulgogi pasta (spice on the side) so Benjimin could have it for next day lunch, and we really loved the Gochu Mayo (with sweet spicy jakapeno mayo sauce) Korean Fried Chicken! So crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, great sauce & flavours!

This was our dinner before we joined a fundraiser walk as part of Mike's real estate brokerage Royal LePage. Edmonton Royal LePage Realtors raised $47,000 in support of WIN House and La Selle Shelter helping women, children and families rebuilding after domestic violence. A really great cause and a nice autumn night for a walk. 🙏🏻

* okay our first spot out was actually at my parents Vietnamese restaurant King Noodle House (Pho Hoang) but that doesn't quite count because it's my parents lol.

📍 NARA Katsu
8115 104 Street
Old Strathcona - Whyte Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

22/10/2025

Monkeying around 🐒 hosting my first-ever group trip to Bali, Indonesia 🇮🇩!! 🥹🎉✨🫶🏻 I’m so HAPPY to have explored Bali this October as host of my very first group tour through TrovaTrip ( ). 🙌🏻

Thank you to the 11 wonderful folks who said yes to travelling half way around the world to go on this unforgettable adventure with me!!

One of our tour stops was a visit to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary Ubud. It was so memorable. 🥹 This is a natural sanctuary that dates back to the 14th century, considered a sacred place housing spiritual forces and guardian spirits as well as a vital research and conservation area for 1,200 Balinese long tailed macaque monkeys. The monkeys free roam at the sanctuary, which is over 12.5 hectares in size.

Our local guide Sam gave us great advice on ways to avoid monkey incidents (they like to take water bottles from tourists in particular lol), or what to do if they get too rambunctious (just walk away don’t panic and they’ll jump off yoi lol). We went early morning so it was less crowded and less hot, and there are plentiful opportunities for monkey photo ops as you roam the gorgeous forest or you can pay an additional fee (50,000 IDR or $4 CAD) for staff to help get you some close-up monkey selfies. 🐵📸

There are a few monkey forests 🌳 in Bali, but we were told the one we went to was the best. 😉

This was both my first time travelling as a group AND hosting a group trip, and I’m really happy with the experience! So much so, I’m thinking of hosting my next group trip! ✈️ Will you come along??? I hope so. 🙌🏻

Thanks also to our driver Gede for taking us around the island all week!! We were in great hands 🥰 and I look forward to posting more highlights from my recent Asia trip over the coming weeks!!