Redwitch and Mikka's F&W Live Food Porn Thread! FINALLY DONE! Huzzah!

[Mikka]

And now we know (what mace is), and knowing is half the battle. GI Joe!

Ahem.

Nooo, you all disappeared again! Yet I will continue on. Hopefully this is still useful for someone.

TLDR summary of the next paragraph: Don't rent from dollar.

So, tonight was the night when the confrontation with the rental car company finally came to head. Our tire light was on, and the rental car company told us to go to the middle of nowhere where there was a tire place, where we ended up stuck for about an hour as the tire place people related that there was a hole in the tire but they didn't have a spare tire of that type to give us and the rental car company is like "well, drive 20 more miles in the middle of nowhere to another place with tires" and mom just loses it and is like "NO. YOU ARE BRINGING ME A NEW CAR, AND YOU ARE DOING IT TONIGHT," and to the disbelief of the people at the tire company and the worker at Dollar when we went back to the airport, they were actually like, "...well, okay, see you in an hour?". Only that hour came, and it passed, and an hour later mom calls them and they're like "oh, no one's actually picked up the car yet LOLZ" and we look at each other and we're like "Screw it, it's 9:30, we're going to Jiko."

(Which was around five minutes away from our condo.)

So we get there and the lovely African hostesses are all "Jambo~! How are you?" and we're like, "Miserable, but we will be much better if you feed us," and then they fed us even though it was like 9:40. Phew.

Not that the Mara would have been horrible- the Mara is pretty decent- but Jiko is much nicer. Yay, Jiko!

Because it's been that sort of day, we start out with drinks. Though, really, we'd probably start out with drinks even if it had been a wonderful day. We're just like that.

Mom gets a wine, "Raats" Red Jasper (a blend of Cab Sav, Cab Franc, Malbec, and Petite Verdot) that's quite nice. This one does taste of plum, but also of blackberry and red cherry... and I thought it had a hint of cinnamon, too. It's nice. Fruity, but not exactly sweet. African reds rule.

I get Hanging Out in Capetown, a cocktail made with Van Der Hum Tangerine Liquor (a South African tangerine brandy that is popular here and at Sanaa- I like it), Hanger 1 Mandarin (a Californian (IIRC) vodka), Peach Schnapps, and Cranberry Juice. It's a sweet cocktail, definitely, but it actually has a pretty good alcohol taste to it. They didn't skimp the liquor in this one.

Our server, btw, was Marty. He was great- despite us being the third from last to leave the restaurant, he never made us feel rushed, and he was excellent in helping us pick out drinks and explained everything to us. Great waiter.

Jiko's has one of the more interesting breadservices. African honey-wheat bread and Flaxseed foccacia, with tandori butter. I always have liked it, and continue to like it. And it's a nice change from the sourdough with the unsalted butter that has the Himalayan sea salt on it that you get everywhere else, feh.

We started off pushing this soup back and forth. I can't read my notes for it. 'Taktouka' tomato soup? Taktouka is apparently a Moroccan tomato and pepper dish, so that sounds about right. It was a tomato and pepper soup with purple haze grilled cheese.

...I once had a sake cocktail called purple haze. It was delicious.

Purple haze is apparently a goat's milk cheese that has lavender and fennel in it. This was weird- I liked it a lot, and yet I felt like I couldn't eat too much of it. We broke the grilled cheese in half, yet I ended up only eating around half of my half and giving the quarter to mom. It was relatively sharp for a goat's milk. Still good, though.

And the soup was wonderful. Just what we needed to start calming down and relax.

Unfortunately for mom, *just* as the next course came out, the stupid tow-truck came with the new car which means she had to run out and meet him and leave the food getting cold. So while this was a wonderful meal for me, she had to eat her portion of it room temperature rather then heated. I think she still enjoyed it, but I'm sure she would have enjoyed it more if they had been hot. This was not at all the fault of the restaurant or the waiter, or even of us- it was the fault of the stupid Dollar not coming when they said they would come and then not telling us when they would actually be there. Bums.

That's also why the images sort of suck- she took them in a rush.

Anyway, this is Wild Boar, with mealie pap, white truffle oil, micro cilantro and chakalaka (that's an African relish and the source of the onions and the like- it's also the name of our favorite African wine, though they only serve it by the bottle here at Jiko's). This is also delicious. Definitely in the top five of the items we had this trip, and next time we go to Jiko's, I may just ask if they can make this in to an entree for me even though there are so many good entree's at Jikos. I don't even know how to describe how all the flavors went together, but it was delicious and perfect and I want it right now why am I not at Disney rawrghhhhgable....

Ahem.

This does have a bit of spice to it, from the chakalaka. It's not overly spicy, though, and I don't think it would bother anyone too much. Also noting, the boar is cooked very medium-rare. I thought this was perfect, but if you're one of those people who likes your meat cooked to death headache: I kid, I kid!), this is probably not for you.

(I note this paired excellently with mom's wine, and I may have tried a sip or two of it while she was gone.)

South African "Vetkoek". A vetkoek is a traditional African pastry, though I gather they are not usually made with naan bread like these are. Inside these, one was filled with herb-braised rabbit, one was filled with coconut-egg curry, and one was filled with Durban (spicy!) curry. All three were awesome.

You basically just picked these up and took bites out of them. I think I ended up leaving mom more then I ate, which was stupid of me, as these we really good. My favorite was the rabbit- oddly, I think this is the first time I've had bunny meat. It was quite good. (Sorry, bunnies.) The coconut-egg curry wasn't really spicy at all (more sweet), but the Durban curry was as spicy as I've come to expect from items that say Durban. But that's okay, because you also got...

Dipping/scooping sauces! The red one was tomato of some sort. The yellow one was mango-banana, and very delicious even on it's own. The green one was some sort of corriander-spinach-lentil dip, despite the fact that it looks like a pesto. It was the one that I thought went the best, though I probably could have eaten the mango-banana dip on it's own.

The mango-banana was paticularly good for cutting the spice on the Durban curry vetkoek. All had their place, though, and it was fun to try each vetkoek with each of the three spices.

Eventually mom came back and ate the other half of the food I had left. And then...

We ordered dessert wines, because that's just how we roll.

I didn't take notes on these wines, sadly, but both were enjoyable. In a twist from the usual, mom ordered the white while I ordered the red. Her's is Mulderbosch Late Harvest (a Sav Blanc), which was one of those sticky syrupy but still delicious dessert wines. Mine was the Axe Hill Port, which our waiter notes goes excellently with anything chocolate. Both were South African wines (which automatically meant my port was going to be awesome, as African reds wee!). Her white wasn't bad either, though.

My Chocolate & Tea Safari. I've had this before- vanilla rooibos-Tanzanian chocolate cake, green tea ice cream, and a piece of chocolate bark with crisps on it that they call a 'free-form kit-kat'. It was as good as it's always been; I honestly tend to go back and forth between it and the milk tart everytime I come to Jiko's.

The chocolate bark was actually a bit too rich/dark for me, so I gave it to mom (who has a 'the darker the better' philosophy when it comes to chocolate), but you can bet I ate my cake and ice cream. Mmm. I especially like the ice cream; it's much better then the green tea ice cream you'll find over in the China pavilion.

Mom apparently lost what was left of her mind dealing with the car incident, as she orders the White Chocolate Cheesecake... when she hates white chocolate and thinks it's an evil liar and deceiver out to corrupt poor yummy milk and dark chocolate to it's filthy non-true chocolate ways.

(Personally, I don't mind white chocolate, as long as it uses real cocoa-butter... which I think this did.)

(She later admitted to me that she had hoped it was just white chocolate shavings, or simply white chocolate flavored, rather then having the full white chocolate cover on it like it does. However, she was able to pull the cover off pretty easily and get to the cheesecake underneath it.)

I think the cheesecake itself was white chocolate infused, but that didn't bother her, and the coconut flakey stuff and mango sauce were great. The real winner, though, was that pineapple-chile sorbet. It was more pineapple then chile, but had this bit of spice to it and it was really lovely. They should make that a dessert on it's own.

And then because Marty is awesome (and it was very late and I think they had run out of people with celebrations and stuff to give these too), we got these delicious chocolate cookies. Very chocolatey! I'm not sure what the white stuff is- powdered sugar? They're delicious, in any rate. We thanked him profusely and then finally got out of his hair.


...I love Jiko's. I really do. It has a great combination of actual African food with things Americanized just enough to appeal to the masses, and it has one of the most interesting wine lists on property (all of their cocktails use that tangerine brandy though, I swear). It's not too far out of the way if you've been at AK, and usually you can get in to it with no problem. There's also the appetizer bar and the regular bar that you can sit and eat at, if you want, so even if it's full up on reservations, if you get there at opening you can definitely get a walkup by eating at one or the other. We personally like sitting at the appetizer bar and watching them cook (and, secret, but one time we were sitting there and they gave everyone sitting at the bar two free appetizers (sampler sized, but still!)).

So, I seriously recommend giving it a try. If you're not adventurous, they have a very simple filet (though sadly it hasn't come with mac & cheese for years), and if you're cheap, you can share the reasonably priced flatbreads (we almost got one this trip, in fact... they're really good). Also, the walls change color! Cheap entertainment!

NEXT: Our only breakfast, over at Captain's Grill! But after that is the real fun part... drinking around the world!



...Also, I'm noting this here, because the F&W festival only has so many days left rather then over at Sanaa where it probably fits better. One of our favorite wines is Spice Route Chakalaka (from Western Cape, South Africa). They are selling a half bottle of it at the Festival Center in Epcot for much cheaper then what you'd get if you bought it bottle or half bottle at Jiko's or by the glass at Sanaa. It's a blend of... going to have to copy and paste this... Syrah, Mourvedre, Carignan, Petite Syrah, Grenache and Tannat, and it's extremely good. Rated 90 on Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, and Wine Enthusiast.

You will pay more for a half bottle of it at the Festival Center then you'll pay for a full bottle of it out in the real world, but depending on your state and country, it may be hard to find (they apparently don't sell it here in PA, for example). So? If you're looking for an enjoyable red wine to have in your hotel, or to bring home, or to gift to someone, I'd recomend you buy it. It's not too tannin-y, and it's not too dry (though it does have some tannins and some dryness), and I think if you like red wines, you'll probably like it.

(And, if you want to try before you buy... Sanaa has it by the glass, and Jiko by the full and half bottle. Victoria Falls will probably serve it to you, too, and maybe Boma will as well.)

Right. Okay, enough of my sale's pitch.

(I'm just sad that we didn't buy it, because we couldn't figure out how to get it home. )

 

[Redwitch]

You had to go and mention those Dollar people again. And tinge an otherwise wonderful Jiko review!!!! Moral of the story is "Don't make me go all terrier on you." Now, everyone talks bad about pit bulls and other large breeds, but have you ever watched a terrier? That is me when angry. I clamp down and don't let go, or take "no". No matter how hard you try and shake me off. The young lady at Dollar didn't stand a chance. I had already invested over an hour and a half of my vacation on this and I was done. All said and done, they stole three hours at least of my time. And, telling me the new car would arrive at 8:00 and having to call at 8:45 and being told it had not been dispatched was unprofessional and unacceptable.
Rant over for now. You may return to your food reviews.

 

[Mikka]

Where did everyone go? I promise, if you come back, there's fun drinking around the world stuff coming! That is fun! And exciting! I swear.

Anyway, next morning.

Captain's Grill! Did you know that they have a breakfast buffet? It's not very well advertized, but it's there and has Mickey Waffles and yogurt and pastries and all those various things it needs to have in order to make your breakfast complete. It also has very tempting ala-cart options.

But I wasn't really aware of this.

To me, breakfast is one of those thing's Mom coo's over and I just go "k, whatever". She puts up with so many of my strange requests and quirks in real life that if she wants to go to breakfast on vacation, I'll certainly give her that. To me, breakfast is a meal I skip (health people, kill me now), or just substitute in with lunch food. I don't find it interesting or exciting, generally, and I don't really like breakfast food as a whole.

This meal might almost change my mind. Almost, because I've very stubborn, but hey, it's almost there.

Captain's Grill is one of our to-go lunch spots; it's sort of like a hidden gem, away from the park bustle and easy to get in to that generally delivers surprisingly delicious food. However, there's so much good stuff at Epcot and the ride is such a pain from MGM/HS/whatever they call themselves these days that we don't get to go to it. Still, when mom picked it out as a breakfast spot, I was just like "sure, why not", and didn't think much of it.

Mom starts out with a cafe mocha. It tastes like chocolate and coffee. I'm not too interested, because I know I'll be getting something similar in Belgium.

As we're planning on drinking today, I start out the day with a drink: a Bloody Mary. I'm guessing you know how this is made, so I'll skip explaining that.

This is my first 'real' Bloody Mary. The first Bloody Mary I had was on the plane on the way down, made with a mix and no Tabasco sauce (we had free drink coupons for Southwest, woot). This tasted much better then the airplane based version, I thought. It wasn't all that spicy; just a light kick. I'm guessing I could have asked for more Tabasco sauce if I wanted it, but I'm fine with 'light'.

Then I get this.

Citrus-scented french toast. Challeh bread (egg bread- it's traditional in Jewish holidays) with lavender infused strawberry compote and white chocolate ganache.

This was... actually, really good. Like, seriously good. Enough to pull me away from the "I'm just here for the cocktail, really" mentality to actually start eating seriously and enjoying. I'm really surprised at how much I liked it, in truth. And I can't explain why I liked it so much. It was just... really good french toast, on a slightly different bread than I'm used to. But the strawberries and white chocolate were excellent as well.

...It also came with a side of this, which, eh. Does anyone like this? Disney bacon: too chewy for people who like crunchy bacon, too crunchy for people who like chewy bacon (like me). Just sort of lukewarm and generally eh.

Honestly, I should just order sausages and give them to mom. Despite asking everytime I go to Disney for them to cook it chewy for me if it is at all possible, it always comes out the same- rather inbetween and a bit meh.

Mom had an option that was almost as good as mine- a lobster omelet. Butter poached lobster, asparagus, chive cream, savory hashbrowns.

(I like how they specify that the hashbrowns are savory. I mean, seriously, was someone like "No, I want tart hashbrowns, please"?)

When she ordered this, I was expecting it to be low quality lobster. It wasn't. This may have not been the best lobster in the world (we're not in Maine, after all- we're not even in Maryland), but it was actually pretty darn tasty. And there were big chunks of it in the omelet. It wasn't like 'shredded thin till it's almost nothing and then chucked in', it was like, boom, chunk! It was... also, pretty darn tasty. Hashbrowns weren't bad either, in my personal opinion.


So... this was unusual. I actually liked breakfast. And I actually want to go there again, as I want the Dark Chocolate Waffles and the Lemon-Ricotta Hotcakes. I think breakfast at Captain's Grill is going to be a must for our next trip, and I'm going to be the one asking for it this time.

Weird from someone who usually hates breakfast, huh?

NEXT: The day *I've* been waiting for, at any rate... drink around the world day!

 

[Tink rules]

Here!

I do believe that some of your readers may be down at WDW right now for F&W... so they'll be back.... keep writing!

 

[Redwitch]

I do love breakfast foods; especially if I am NOT the one cooking them!

And, you forgot to tell everyone that I called my mom, "Nana", to rub in the fact that I was eating lobster for breakfast. Yes, I still do things like that. The buffet looked good here, but the menu items were so inventive!

I also love breakfast at Kouzinna. The olive bread toast is amazing! The Wave has a great breakfast buffet and a la carte menu. I want to try breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe and Olivia's. Kona has the stuffed french toast, but nothing else is "different" IMHO.

 

[rodeo65]

Well, I'm not back, I'm new, but I am loving your reviews!! I just read all of them start to finish tonight! It gets me so excited for our trip coming in February You have a wonderful writing style and fantastic descriptions of everything you review.

 

[Mikka]

People! <3 Hurray! Thanks for posting, both of you. (...And mom.) I'm jealous of everyone who is down in Disney right now... sigh. I wish I was still there. Mom and I were talking... we're heading down to Tampa in March, and maybe we'll spend a day to run over to Epcot for Flower & Garden. More booths, yay!

So. Okay. This is the day that we decided to drink around the world, the world meaning Epcot, and the world specifically meaning F&W booths. If it had a stamp, we had to get a drink from there. So this probably isn't helpful to anyone but the few people already at the F&W, who might not even have internet access, but, well... I'm sorry I'm late? ;;

I'm dividing this post in to three parts, as we did the drinks in three parts. This is also so I don't run in to the pictures per post limit. I'll post the others later today, but it may take me some time. >.>

This was truly fun, but I have suggestions if you decide to do it yourself, be it this year or next year:

1. Share. Know your limits. Have a friend with you. Despite the fact that every amount of liquor you drink tastes like there's no alcohol in it, there is alcohol. It will add up. Don't be drinking 22oz beers when you're doing this, even though beer is pretty low in alcohol. It can only lead to tears. Have a friend so that if you drink too much, you have someone looking over you, and you'll probably want to share items if you want to make it to every booth.
2. Start at eleven. We started at eleven thirty, and were getting our last wine when the Illuminations ten minute warning announcement was going off. Don't do this on a weekend; the crowds will be too bad for you to get every booth done.
3. This is a bit more controversial, but I suggest not parking at Epcot. If you do drink to much, you don't want to be stuck standing in the Epcot parking lot trying to figure out if it's safe for you to drive now or not, as that can lead to... bad decisions. Park at DTD. If you did drink to much, you'll have time to sober up. If you didn't, then, hey, head to Paradiso 37 and get a celebration margarita in one of those huge cups, and then you can be drunk, too. Congratulations!
4. Remember the old rhyme- beer before liquor, never been sicker. Liquor then beer, in the clear. The same basically goes for wine, too. Do the drinks with the hard stuff in them, then do either the beer or wine, then do the last left (personally, I'd leave the last as the stuff you like more between beer and wine). To go in reverse will leave you with a higher chance of being drunk as the night ends.
5. Hydrate. Getting annoyed at 3 dollar Disney water? Any counter-service that has a soda machine will give you a glass of tap water for free. Make sure to get water a couple times a day, or you'll end up dehydrated and drunk. Common sense, I know, but I'm pretending I'm an expert at this and trying to be thorough.
6. Make sure you have something in your stomach. A good breakfast is an excellent way to start this day, and grab some stuff from the booths as you go around. You probably won't have time to do a sit down lunch or dinner (unless you do a later dinner after the parks close), so snack as you go.
7. Have fun. Yeah. That's pretty obvious, but- if a booth has nothing you like, skip it. Don't get worried about what you must do or whatever. It's a good opportunity to try new things, but I wouldn't get too serious about it. That just takes the fun out of everything.

We clear? Yay.

Anyway, we started by coming in the International Gateway. Our planned order was liquor, beer, then wine, and we stuck to it. This means we started off in France...

Eiffel Sour Cosmo Slush.

This tastes like a cranberry-cherry slushy, with the slightest hint of orange. It's refreshing, sweet and tart, and tastes nothing like alcohol. It also stains your mouth this pretty red color. Honestly, it's not one of our favorites- we decided we like the 'lemonade' slush from the booth that's always there (where you can by the grand marnier slush as well) better. But it's not bad by any means. If you like cherry, cranberry, and orange flavors a lot, you'll probably like this.

Belgium's chilled coffee with the Godiva chocolate liquor.

Again, no taste of alcohol. It's just coffee and chocolate. Some people say it tastes more like chocolate milk then anything, but I still got that distinctly coffee flavor. I actually think they use a fair amount of the Godiva stuff in this, as it is quite chocolatey, but Godiva chocolate liquor just doesn't taste like alcohol. Still like it, though.

The Shakin' Jamacian Coffee from the American Adventure Coffee Cart. I have no idea what about this is Jamacian.

They can serve it hot or chilled; hot comes in a much smaller cup, but might have stronger alcohol taste. This is pretty light- I think there's just the slightest bit of kahlua, though the vanilla and caramel are definitely there. I found this pretty refreshing, actually, though I think it needed more kahlua.

Poland's Szarlotka.

This drink actually tastes like it has some alcohol to it, so cheers. I'm not sure what else is in it besides the vodka, but it does taste like a vodka apple juice slushy. I wasn't sure about it at first taste, but the more I drank it, the more I liked it.

(As a side note, you might notice that Poland is the only booth we don't get a food item at this trip (well, we only got the s'mores thing at the Desserts booth, but let's pretend that counts). We have Polish (and Scottish, and Irish) background, so we're pretty used to Polish food, and they didn't have anything we couldn't just make at home easily.)

The Soju Fruit Slushy in South Korea, with it's bizarre bubble tea straw.

This was one of two items we drank that Thursday that we both disliked. This did not taste anything like the perfectly good soju we had tried a few days before. This tasted like fake-citrus slushness. Unfortunately, with both of us not being impressed, mom wouldn't let me just pass it on to her. So we both drank around half of this thing. We should have just got the shoju again... or the black raspberry wine, that stuff is delicious.

If you're more of a citrus person then we are, you might like this. There's no real shoju taste at all, if that means something to you. But it just... didn't work for us at all.

This, on the other hand, was our favorite drink. The Happy Lychee in China.

Basically, they take Lychee water and then pour a shot or two of vodka and tequila on top of it. Delicious, and definitely has some strength to it- not enough to impair you or anything, but enough that you can tell you are drinking an alcoholic beverage and not just a bunch of fruit juices mixed together. Lychee water is great on it's own, and I found the vodka and tequila just make it better.

Of course, that very day, we ran in to a girl in the gift shop who claimed she hated this because it tasted like glue, and had actually mixed it and the soju fruit slush together (along with I think the dragonberry drink from Refreshment Port). She said it tasted much better that way. I suppose lychee might help the soju drink...

Mexico's Mango-Habanero Margarita.

This tasted more habanero-ish then the Lime-Habanero Margarita on the official Disney bar list, to be honest. Sweet mango, and then spicy pepper. It worked well together. Mom was just glad it wasn't yet another frozen drink at this part. We enjoyed this, though, and yes, you could tell it was a margarita- there's definitely some tequila in there. Not a lot, but some.

The Frozen Caiprinha in Brazil, along with it's crispy pork belly with black beans, onions, avocado and cilantro.

We've never had a Caiprinha before, so I don't know if this is a good or bad example of one. I liked it, though, and I could taste something that wasn't just fruit. It's made with a sugarcane liquor that Brazil would like you to know is not rum, thank you very much. There's this big background thing about Brazil trying to get Cachaça to be classified as Cachaça rather then as rum here in the USA. Sort of interesting stuff.

Pork belly? Surprisingly good. It couldn't compare to the pork belly I had at the California Grill, but on it's own, it stood out quite well. And our black beans were delicious- not mushy at all, and quite crisp. I thought this was a really nice dish, though it is a small portion for it's price.

Scotland's Loch Lomand and the vegetarian haggis with rutabaga and mashed potatoes.

A Loch Lomand is, apparently, a Rusty Nail with dry vermouth added. It, along with the Singapore Sling, are the only cocktails at the F&W that don't have a mixer added in to it, so it's just pure alcohol. This is another one that can knock you off your toes if you're not careful. We love scotch and drambooie (which I will never spell correctly and I am too lazy to look up at this moment), so we loved this. You probably do have to like those two items for this to work for you, though.

The vegetarian haggis? I think mom liked it more then I did, but it was good. I still don't think I could work up the courage to try real haggis, but this was perfectly acceptable. I thought it was slightly dry, but I suppose that's what the rutabaga and potatoes were for- scoop it up together and give it some moisture. I'd recommend giving it a try.

Aulani Sunrise at Hawaii.

Sweet fruit juices with vodka, basically. The fruit juices are a lot more prominent then the vodka, which is barely there at all. Another one of those sweet and refreshing things that you could easily drink around seven of them and then you'd stand up and feel really dizzy and bemused. Though I doubt there was that much vodka used in the making of this.

We were pretty sure they served the Dragon Berry Colada at the Flower and Garden festival this spring, so we went with the orange dole whip with creme de cacoa white.

This was... interesting. We didn't strongly dislike it, but I don't think either of us really liked this, either. We simply like pineapple more then orange, and prefer the pineapple dole whip's in the Magic Kingdom. The creme de cocoa was also just poured on top of the dole whip, which didn't seem to work to well in my opinion. There has to be a better way of mixing the creme de cocoa and the orange dole whip together... as it is, you just get a few bites with a bit of alcohol, then the rest is straight orange dole whip.

OUZOOOOOOOOO!

That's what they shouted at the Greece booth when they gave it to us. Mom made this fantastic 'omg ewwwwwwww' face when she tried it, which made it worth the price alone. Personally, I liked it. But I like licorice. That's going to be what tells you if you like ouzo or not: whether you like licorice or not. It basically tastes like licorice liquor.

Very small pour, but I heard people say they found it incredibly strong. It didn't really do anything to me, but I guess I have a pretty good alcohol tolerance?

Chilled Irish Coffee featuring Bunratty Potcheen (we had a seminar on that, if you remember), in, you guessed it, Ireland! Along with the Warm Chocolate Pudding with Bailey's Custard.

I looked at the pudding disinterestedly, and noted to mom that she'd have to eat most of it, as I don't like pudding. Then I took one bite and was like "...never mind". I'm not sure if this is really a pudding, or more like a chocolate ganache made solid. Whatever it is, it was delicious, and the custard just made it more delicious. Very heavily chocolatey- this is sort of rich- but very good.

The chilled Irish coffee? It needed more potcheen. You could barely taste it: it mostly just tasted like good chilled coffee, not like it had the originator of the term moonshine hiding in there. I'd recommend trying the mead, instead.


And with that, we were back in France. One circle around the showcase done! NEXT comes the beer round.

 

[TigerKat]

I'm still here! Enjoying all of your updates and taking notes. One more week!

 

[Mikka]

I'm still here! Enjoying all of your updates and taking notes. One more week!

I'm so jealous of you going to the F&W. I want to go again! I hope you have a lot of fun, and that this is somewhat helpful for you.

So, second pass around the world showcase. Time for the beer.

But this first.

See, sake is called rice wine, but it tends to be sorted as liquor in the store, but it's actually fermented in the same way you'd ferment a beer. So we honestly weren't sure where to classify it. However, the sake fit perfectly in-between our last liquor cocktail and our first beer, so we decided we'd have it then as sort of a lead-in. If that makes any sense.

This is Junmai Ginjo Yuki, Yuki being one of those other few Japanese words I recognize from a decade and a half of watching manga and reading anime- it means snow. (Of course, your passport could have told you that.) As a Junmai Ginjo, it's only made with four ingredients- water, rice, yeast, and mold. This was a dryer sake, but still quite tasty. But I really love sake. We may have drank two half bottles of it last night. >.>

Oh, and this is the Japan booth. In case you were some reason wondering where they were selling sake because you were feeling silly today.

The first beer was recommended for me to try, the Cigar City Brewing, Florida Cracker Belgium-Style White Ale. This was fine by me, because Florida Orange Groves wines suck, anyway.

(I probably just made five million enemies with that line. But seriously! Their lime wine doesn't taste like lime at all, nor does their mango taste very mangoy or their blueberry taste very blueberryish (I'll admit to not having tried their sangria- maybe it's better). There are better fruit wine makers up here in PA. I'd even list them if it wouldn't be going horribly off topic.)

This was interesting. It only had the lightest bit of bitter. We thought it had citrus notes, but they weren't orange. Just... some other kind of citrus. And a bit of spice? Mom was surprised she liked this; she usually does not care for white ales but she did enjoy it. I didn't find it all that bad. Probably the third best of all the beer I tried this trip.

Over to the Brewer's Collection next, where we ordered three beers. The Schofferhofer Grapefruit (which someone recommended I try on the first page of this thread), the Altenmunster Oktoberfest (because I had liked the Sam Adam's Oktoberfest), and the BraufactuM Darkon, because mom likes dark beers.

The grapefruit was interesting. The adults (I know, I'm 26, but I still have difficulty picturing myself as an 'adult'- I'm not responsible enough!), including mom, that were hanging around here all decided it tasted like Squirt, much to the confusion of the younger generation that was hanging around. To me, though, it doesn't really taste that much like grapefruit, either. Citrusy and sweet, but grapefruit exactly? Not really. This was very smooth, had absolutely no taste of alcohol (though there's like, no alcohol in this thing, isn't there?), and generally seemed more like a soda then a beer. I could drink this, but it feels almost like cheating- 'I like the beers that taste nothing like beer, please'.

We weren't too impressed with this Oktoberfest. There wasn't much of the 'spice' you would expect from an Oktoberfest to this- it tasted like a lighter ale. It was basically just a 'meh' beer- not horrible or anything, but there was nothing that stood out about it to make either of us want to drink it. About the best I could say is it didn't taste that hoppy, despite being bitter.

The Darkon? Smelled a lot spicier then the Oktoberfest, first of all. It had a really nice scent, actually. I found it bitter, but smooth, and not too bad for a dark beer. I wouldn't want to drink it all, but it didn't kill me. Mom enjoyed it, thought she got some coffee and chocolate notes.

At the Craft Beers, we ordered the first flight, because we wanted the first three beers anyway and adding the IPA to it was only a dollar more. We had this little blue friend (sometimes known as Stichy, other times known as Mini-Me) who offered to drink the IPA for us, but then we realized he was not of legal drinking age and hooked him back to my bag where he proceeded to spend the rest of the day whining about descrimination against man-made illegal aliens.

Ahem.

The IPA will go first, because this is the other drink we both disliked. Apparently, I was starting to feel some alcohol at this point, as I was playing with my zipper puller and writing notes like "tastes like gross" in my notebook. In general, this (Florida Beer Company, Devil's Triangle) is probably a perfectly normal IPA, but we just find IPA's too hoppy. I found it very hoppy and very bitter, and mom didn't disagree with me there.

Then was Dogfish Head Brewery's Namaste, which apparently is a good deal here at the festival. I found it seemed to have a bit of orange and a bit of spice (corriander?), but both tastes were light. This was a pretty light beer to me. Drinkable, though. Mom liked it.

Abita Brewing Company's Fall Fest... had a bit of hoppyness, but not much. It wasn't really bitter. Reminded mom of an Amber. I found it spicy yet sweet. Mom couldn't pick out any flavors, but she's usually no help with that.

Then, the Leinenkugel's Seasonal Shandy, which was the beer I liked the most out of all the beers I tried. I know, I know, I completely fail as a beer drinker. I'm sorry! This tasted like you took sprite and added a bit of beer to it. Or even lemonade and added a bit of beer. Very smooth, very lemony smell. Looking it up, apparently Shandy's are made by mixing beer and soda, so... I don't know. I just know I fail at beer drinking, to like the stuff with the least amount of beer and most amount of fruitness the best. ...Mom thought it was okay, too, so yell at her, not me. <.<

The last beer, Pyramid Weiss Creme Beer from Desserts & Champagne.

(Yes, we dislike champagne so much that we'll take a beer over it. Also, those champagne's are expensive!)

This beer was weird. To me, it honestly tasted different from every other beer I had ever tried. I didn't like it anymore then the others, but it was remarkably different. There was a bit of hoppyness, a bit of bitterness, but mostly it was just this strange, unusual flavor I couldn't pin down. Mom, very helpfully (where's the roll eyes smiley?), noted this tasted like Creme Beer. Yeah.

I didn't like it, but she did. It had a huge head and a lot of lacing, if that's the sort of thing that matters to you.


I somehow managed to get through all this beer tasting, and then we moved for our third and final pass through the World Showcase to pick up the wine.

NEXT: What I just said, seriously. Oh, okay. Wine.

 

[Briarmom]

I'm so jealous. I so want to go to Disney!

 

[Mikka]

I'm so jealous. I so want to go to Disney!

I want to go too! Even though I just got back, I keep seeing more F&W stuff that we didn't try and wanting to go and there's all the good normal places... sigh.


Okay, now, wine. Problem: all the pictures look alike. I'm basically just guessing for some of these.

The pairing of Steamed Green Lip Mussels (with garlic butter and toasted bread crumbs) with Mahua's Sauv Blanc over at New Zealand.

The mussels were quite good, surprisingly- as I said, Seafood around the world showcase had generally been a bit 'eh' this F&W. I'm not the biggest fan of mussels in the world, but I enjoyed these. You can get better mussels elsewhere on property, but isn't that true for basically every item you order at the F&W? Taken for what they were, these were excellent.

The wine, on the other hand... well, I wrote down that it tasted "grassy". I don't think you use the word grassy to describe wines. I also wrote down kiwi, but considering I'm of the opinion that kiwi doesn't have much flavor, I'm not really sure how I got that. I don't know. This was just a generically bleh white wine. It's not going to impress you much.

Ah, Morocco. My favorite pavilion. One time, years ago, we exited the French Regional Lunch to go to the Morocco pavilion to get some sort of dish mom wanted to try. I promptly and a bit miserably told the cast members in the little hut that I was drunk. One of them goes, "Here, try this" and hands me a Mimosa. To this day, it's an injoke with me, myself and I that Mimosa's cure drunkenness. And it still makes them my favorite pavilion.

We had the Ksar White, which is actually a Moroccan wine (and why we got it over the Mimosa and Sangria, which aren't Moroccan at all). We had that before, when we did a standard drink around the world and got it from the pastry area back in Tangerine Cafe (one of the only QS's I like). This wasn't any different then before, save for wow, look at that pour! The cast member's in Morocco believe those tipsy caps the cast members in other countries use on their wine are for the weak, I imagine, because they just fill right to the brim. Cheers!

Ksar White is, in my opinion, a very average wine. It's not very sweet, it's not very dry, it's not very fruity, it's not very earthy. It just is. I almost think you could use it as a baseline to compare other wines from, as it's one of the more neutral wines I can think of. On the plus side, that makes it pretty hard to dislike this wine: there's nothing really standing out about it *to* dislike. On the minus side, that makes it pretty boring. We thought it might go better with food, though. Maybe try it with the harissa chicken eggroll thing?

We had a Moroccan red wine that was delicious at a Moroccan lunch pairing at the F&W festival a few years ago. I wish they would sell that at the booth- it lived up to the 'African reds yum' standard.

We'd already tried all the beers at Hops & Barley, so we decided to try a wine. The La Crema Sonoma Coast Chardonnay was the lesser of two evils, and cheaper. The Crasin Bread Pudding with Grand Marnier Anglase was just awesome looking.

The Bread Pudding was indeed delicious. Yes, yes, you'll get better bread pudding at Raglan Road or whatever your choice of resturant for Bread Pudding is, but for something prepared at a booth for mass consumtion, this was decent. I was afraid it was going to be dry, but it was very moist (still, I'd be wary if you see it sitting out under a heat lamp). The sauce was not skimpy and was very delicious: lightly orange, and it went well with the crasins. I think it was good.

Then, the chardonnay.

First, this was a horrible pairing. Get your chardonnay with your lobster, seriously. It does not go with the bread pudding at all. Much too dry for it.

Second, we have a saying in our house. It goes, "The only problem with chardonnay is that it tastes like chardonnay". I like French Chardonnays; I like unoaked Chardonnays. I do not like California Chardonnays.

Why? Well despite the websites official claims about it tasting like citrus and butterscotch, I'll tell you what it tasted like- oak, butter, and vanilla, like every other Californian chardonnay I have ever tried that wasn't done French-style. California chardonnay's are ridiculously overoaked to the pallets of the rest of the world, and for some reason this proves to be a winning formula in the USA (and basically only in the USA- people love USAian wines, but our Californian chardonnay's are not ones that are usually talked about). I do not understand it, and I wish that it would stop, and I think overoaked chardonnay's are ruining everything pure and good about the world and making kittens cry. And that every time I drink one, another kitten cries, and it's all very sad and thus I should never drink one again.

...This is a very passionate subject for me.

If you like Californian Chardonnay's, you'll like this. You can buy this bottle for nine dollars, though, so the glass is a waste of money. Regardless, go for it and cheers. Me, give me a pinot noir from the Sonoma Coast instead. Mmm, Californian pinot noirs...

(Also, what is the Californian wine doing with the mostly New England style food? Couldn't they find a nice winery up in New York to get wines from instead, or something? Hmph. New York has a ton of good wineries.)

Enough of my whining. This is the Chianti Placido from Italy.

Chianti is actually a wine region, not a grape, which always confuses me. I wish things would just list the name of the grapes. This is a blend, I believe. It's light and dry, with plum and cherry notes to it. In mom's words, "it tastes like yumminess after white yuckiness", which is charming and very helpful, I'm sure. If I'm reading the internet right, this is a ridiculously cheap wine. It's also much better then the Pinot Grigio Placido they also serve here.

Germany's 'Weingut Pitthan Dornfelder Dry Barrique Style'. This was good enough for me to note it was 'delicious' on my notes. Mom said it was her type of reds. More earthy then fruity, but one shouldn't stay away from it on that. I think I liked her sweeter Dornfelder in the Cali Grill more, but this was still great. One of the better wines at the festival.

Cheese. The Almond Crusted Blue Cheese Souffle with Fig Jam, and the Once Upon a Vine's the Big Bad Red Blend.

The souffle seems to be a huge love it or hate it deal. I've been reading the dining reviews and the regular disney restaurants boards like I have nothing better to do, and not once have I seen people say "it was okay". It's either love it or hate it. Even on other sites, it's either labeled one of the worst items at the festival, or one of the best. We, personally, came down on the like it scale. It was cooked perfectly, and we had a good portion of fig jam to flavor it with- it probably would be a bit bland without the jam, but with the jam the flavors really came out.

The wine was pretty good. Sweetest wine we had tried so far, in a fruity sort of way. I wrote down that it didn't taste like plum, but not what it actually tasted like, so, uh, no idea on this one. We did like it, though.

Porcupine Ridge Syrah. It's an African red. What more needs to be said?

I suppose I should say that syrah/shiraz is mom's favorite wines (followed closely by cab fran's and malbec's, generally). So as this wasn't horrible, she was in love with it. It was a very nice syrah. I did think this one had a plum taste, though, but I think most reds taste like plum. It's just my weird tastebuds. This has some significant tannins, but not in a bad way.

Over in Singapore, the seared Mahi Mahi with jasmine rice & 'singa' sauce, and the Marques de Caceres Satinela.

Mahi Mahi? Meh. Not good, but not horrible. Pretty average. Singa sauce is a sort of chile sauce, but this wasn't all that hot. It wasn't all that anything.

The wine, on the other hand, while not being from Singapore (I know I sort of implied at Morocco that we were trying to try things actually from that country, but we didn't want the beer and we'd already had the sling (and, she's allergic)), was nice. It was sweet, and stood up to the singa sauce very well, actually. Good pairing. Smelled like pear, but didn't taste like it- I thought it tasted like peaches? Hm. Don't know.

Penfolds Bin 8 Cabernet Shiraz, from Australia. Australian reds are generally pretty good, too.

I wrote down "we likely!" for this one. It's sort of sad to look back and see how I got less coherent as the day went on. ;; Anyway, this was actually served chilled, but we thought it would probably be better room temperature. Think they made a mistake, there- generally you wouldn't serve this type of blend chilled. It smells a lot sweeter then it tastes, but it's still slightly sweet. Pretty good.

Terrazas Reserva Torrontes from Argentina.

For some reason, I really disliked this wine. Enough to write that it "tasted like suck" and make mom drink all of it. The pour was slightly smaller then usual, too. Mom thought I was just being weird at this point, and thought it tasted fine. I don't know. I've never had a torrontes before, so I don't have much experience with them. I just know I didn't like this one.

Showing how small the pour is, the La Face Neige Apple Ice Wine from Canada.

This is delicious and syrupy sweet goodness that tastes like apple and your money flying out of your pocket. Expensive wine for such a little pour, but it is an ice wine. It's to be expected. Still delicious enough that I'd overlook it to drink it anyway.

Then I realized we forgot Terra, so we ran back to catch the Vegan Vine Red Blend and the Chili Colorado with House-made Chips and Cashew Cheese featuring Gardein Beefless Tips (phew, long name).

And this is where I'm almost positive I lost my passport, stupid me. My fully stamped passport. ;_; (The, uh, Epcot one. Not the one that gets me in to Canada.) We went around the next day with a passport and got it all stamped, but it just wasn't the same as getting it stamped when you're ordering.

Anyway, the beefless tips (also known as 'soy') were going to take around fifteen minutes to cook, so mom managed to talk the chef, Austin (I can't believe I remember his name) in to giving us and everyone else waiting for them a free plate full of chips. My mom is dangerous.

The chili was actually pretty good. I don't think it would fool you in to thinking it was beef in a blind taste-test, due to the texture, but the taste was pretty similar. The real stand out were the chips, which may have been slightly salty but were still incredibly delicious. I loved those chips.

The Vegan Red Blend? Not bad at all, and vegan wine making can be pretty tough. It was sweet enough to counter the chili but it was in no way syrupy or sickening (like, the Apple Ice Wine might be sickening sweet to some- this was in no way that). If they hadn't told me it was vegan, I wouldn't have known it. Just a generally decent red wine.


So. We finished with just enough time to find a spot for Illuminations outside the gift stores and watch it. I was at my overly emotional point and tipsy; mom was completely smashed.

(She's also blackmailing me to not put anything 'embarrassing' about her on here because she has a 'professional reputation' she has to maintain, which I think is no fun. Still, she's a relatively high-performance drunk; she wasn't cursing or wobbling around or doing anything inappropriate to traumatize poor children at the festival, thank goodness.)

So, yeah. This much booze in one day can definitely get to you, and we did keep hydrated and eat a pretty good amount. So be careful if you decide to do the same thing.

...It was a lot of fun, though. Expensive! But a lot of fun, and if you can stay safe while doing it, I'd recommend giving it a try.

Next: As I wasn't letting her drive, we headed over to Bluezoo.

 

[DizzneyDi]

You had to go and mention those Dollar people again. And tinge an otherwise wonderful Jiko review!!!! Moral of the story is "Don't make me go all terrier on you." Now, everyone talks bad about pit bulls and other large breeds, but have you ever watched a terrier? That is me when angry. I clamp down and don't let go, or take "no". No matter how hard you try and shake me off. The young lady at Dollar didn't stand a chance. I had already invested over an hour and a half of my vacation on this and I was done. All said and done, they stole three hours at least of my time. And, telling me the new car would arrive at 8:00 and having to call at 8:45 and being told it had not been dispatched was unprofessional and unacceptable.
Rant over for now. You may return to your food reviews.

I hope Dollar at least gave you a nicer car! I have fond memories of the Alamo rental place at MCO substituting an awesome Grand Prix for the Mercury that only ran when it really felt like it. Of course this was more than a dozen years ago, back when companies other than Disney actually tried to make it up to their customers when something went wrong with the product or service you'd paid them big bucks for!

 

[wdwpirates]

Mikka, amazing reviews and pics!! Just finished reading every last one. I so want to go to F&W next year now!! DH and I visit the World maybe 2-3 times a year but we've never made it to F&W....now we just have to! Really enjoyed your food and beverage pairings and comments on the various wines. I'm just starting to learn more about wine. I agree with you on NY having some great wineries - Millbrook Winery being one of them!!

Again, thanks for all this super info!! Great job!

 

[Redwitch]

I hope Dollar at least gave you a nicer car! I have fond memories of the Alamo rental place at MCO substituting an awesome Grand Prix for the Mercury that only ran when it really felt like it. Of course this was more than a dozen years ago, back when companies other than Disney actually tried to make it up to their customers when something went wrong with the product or service you'd paid them big bucks for!

I think I got a car or two class upgrade with the replacement and they got a car with 1/4 tank of gas. I've been stalking my CC charges, if they try and charge me for gas..... Well, let's just say it won't be pretty.

 

[Redwitch]

Now, given Mikka's rule that I have to post after everyone of her posts; I am way behind. So, I am going to do cheat quotes so I can respond faster. And I'll even skip my Arial font.

Belgium's chilled coffee with the Godiva chocolate liquor.

I swear I liked this better last year.

The Shakin' Jamacian Coffee from the American Adventure Coffee Cart.

The server gave us a halfhearted "be careful drinkin' around the world lecture."

Poland's Szarlotka. This drink actually tastes like it has some alcohol to it.

I liked this one, apple-alcohol-slushie.

The Soju Fruit Slushy in South Korea

Yuck. What a waste of innocent soju.

This, on the other hand, was our favorite drink. The Happy Lychee in China

I hope this becomes a permanent option. I could drink a couple. I think we should try and recreate it at home.

Of course, that very day, we ran in to a girl in the gift shop who claimed she hated this because it tasted like glue, and had actually mixed it and the soju fruit slush together (along with I think the dragonberry drink from Refreshment Port). She said it tasted much better that way.

I am not sure about her mixology methods, but to each their own...

Mom was just glad it wasn't yet another frozen drink at this part.

I think it has been over 10 years since I have ordered a "frozen" drink and I think the last one I had was frozen margarita and frozen sangria swirled at On the Border. Do they still serve them? I just am not a big "slush" fan.

There's this big background thing about Brazil trying to get Cachaça to be classified as Cachaça rather then as rum here in the USA

On February 25, 2013, the U.S. Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) finally “legalized cachaça,” as they published the final rule that will recognize Brazil’s national spirit as an official spirit and distinctive product of Brazil.

Loch Lomand

Now that was good stuff!!!!!

orange dole whip with creme de cacoa white

I don't like orange flavoring and I don't like white chocolate - what was I thinking?

OUZOOOOOOOOO!

I don't care for licorice either.

Chilled Irish Coffee featuring Bunratty Potcheen

I loved the Irish Coffee last year - was it with Potcheen or whiskey? This really didn't have a "bite' at all.

Up next - beer, beer, everyone cheer!

 

[Redwitch]

Mikka said I had to respond to the beer tonight. (Like anyone care about my ramblings, her's are so much more entertaining!)

This is Junmai Ginjo Yuki, Yuki being one of those other few Japanese words I recognize from a decade and a half of watching manga and reading anime- it means snow. (Of course, your passport could have told you that.) As a Junmai Ginjo, it's only made with four ingredients- water, rice, yeast, and mold. This was a dryer sake, but still quite tasty. But I really love sake. We may have drank two bottles of it last half night.

We really are developing an appreciation for sake. We did the Sake and Food pairing two years in a row at F&W and have begun to order sake with sushi or Asian fusion foods locally. Mikka has been a big fan of manga and anime for a long time which does bring a fair amount of knowledge about Japanese culture; including beverages. It does help that she recognizes some words, so we have a general idea what we are ordering. The sake was pretty tasty.

Cigar City Brewing, Florida Cracker Belgium-Style White Ale

This was pretty good. I don't think I dislike white ales as much as I prefer darker brews. Some of the white ales have interesting spice and flavor profiles.

Schofferhofer Grapefruit

This was alcoholic Squirt. I remember Squirt (which tells you how old I am!!!) This is something I could sit on on someone's deck and drink and then stand up and fall over. It went down real easy in a thirst quenching way; it could be dangerous!

Braufactum Darkon, because mom likes dark beers.

Yes I do, and this did not disappoint!

At the Craft Beers, we ordered the first flight.

The picture with Stitch is awesome! Mikka already reviewed my feeling on the beers. So lets just focus on our little alien friend.

The last beer, Pyramid Weiss Creme Beer from Desserts & Champagne

I drank my fair share of "Genny Creme Ale" back in my college days. To educate the masses (AKA Mikka) -- A cream ale is related to pale lager. They are generally brewed to be light and refreshing with a straw to pale golden color. Hop and malt flavor is usually subdued but like all beer styles it is open to individual interpretation, so some breweries give them a more assertive character. While cream ales are top-fermented ales, they typically undergo an extended period of cold-conditioning or lagering after primary fermentation is complete. This reduces fruity esters and gives the beer a cleaner flavor.

 

[DnA2010]

Just getting back into dining review and so glad I found this one! Youre review is just out of this world! (no pun intended )

Although I only have one short trip to the world to my name, my DH and I are hoping to take a trip to the World like yours and this is such an inspiration! Very much enjoying all the great details, photos and comments!!

 

[Redwitch]

Okay, now, wine. Problem: all the pictures look alike. I'm basically just guessing for some of these.

Umm, we know the order we went and the pictures are in order - so what's to guess?

This was just a generically bleh white wine.

I bet New Zealand has good red wines!

Ah, Morocco. My favorite pavilion. One time, years ago, we exited the French Regional Lunch to go to the Morocco pavilion to get some sort of dish mom wanted to try. I promptly and a bit miserably told the cast members in the little hut that I was drunk. One of them goes, "Here, try this" and hands me a Mimosa.

This still baffles me. We've checked several times and they just get the drink from the swirly machine, so it had to have alcohol in it.

We had a Moroccan red wine that was delicious at a Moroccan lunch pairing at the F&W festival a few years ago. I wish they would sell that at the booth- it lived up to the 'African reds yum' standard.

Yes, it was a good red!

"The only problem with chardonnay is that it tastes like chardonnay"

Also, what is the Californian wine doing with the mostly New England style food? Couldn't they find a nice winery up in New York to get wines from instead, or something? Hmph. New York has a ton of good wineries.)

What she said!!!

"it tastes like yumminess after white yuckiness"

The Chianti was probably a Sangiovese blend. It was good for a cheap wine. Disney must make a killing on the F&W booth wines. Most of them are very affordable off the shelf and buying in bulk; even better.

Germany's 'Weingut Pitthan Dornfelder Dry Barrique Style'. This was good enough for me to note it was 'delicious' on my notes. Mom said it was her type of reds.

Yes, I did like this one. We generally drink German whites, so this was a change.

Porcupine Ridge Syrah. It's an African red. What more needs to be said?

Absolutely Correct!! I guess I can't say anything else!

Penfolds Bin 8 Cabernet Shiraz, from Australia. Australian reds are generally pretty good, too. I wrote down "we likely!" for this one. It's sort of sad to look back and see how I got less coherent as the day went on.

The pictures got worse as well! (And she should just skip the upcoming after drinking bar food pictures.) I like Australian reds very much.

Terrazas Reserva Torrontes from Argentina. For some reason, I really disliked this wine. Enough to write that it "tasted like suck" and make mom drink all of it.

At this point, I have no idea about this wine.

The La Face Neige Apple Ice Wine from Canada. This is delicious and syrupy sweet goodness that tastes like apple and your money flying out of your pocket.

Pretty much sums up an ice wine.

Anyway, the beefless tips (also known as 'soy') were going to take around fifteen minutes to cook, so mom managed to talk the chef, Austin (I can't believe I remember his name) in to giving us and everyone else waiting for them a free plate full of chips. My mom is dangerous.

Come on! Austin was our new BFF! The fake beef was surprisingly tasty, but those chips were amazing!

And that ends our drinking around the F&W world adventure. Mikka has mentioned she is 26. That gives you a guess as to my age, and I wasn't a teenage bride. So, when is this "Old Enough to Know Better" going to kick in?

 

[Mikka]

Hi, everyone. It's been a while. I'm ashamed to say I sort of got distracted by video games and writing and wasn't in the mood to post. And I have National Novel Writing Month starting tomorrow and we're moving next month... still, I'm determined to finish this.

Thanks for the posts, everyone. I'm happy you're enjoying this. And go to the Food and Wine! What Dumbo is to the average three year old is what Food and Wine is for adults. It's awesome and fun and entertaining, and everyone should try to go at least once. And there's so many events... there's so many ones we've never gotten to that I want to do.

So, as I said in my last post back there, mom was drunk, so I took her to BlueZoo. I had been wanting to go there the whole trip, but things kept happening that prevented me from getting there, so I was actually pretty pleased by this development. I mean, I would of preferred she be sober, but... BlueZoo! It's one of my favorite restaurants. As we were pretty full from the F&W, we didn't order too much, though.

As I wasn't the one drunk, I ordered a drink. I told myself only one- I could either get a cocktail to start off or a port/dessert drink with dessert- because someone had to stay half-way responsible. But BlueZoo's cocktail menu is too interesting for me to ignore, so I went with the 'Smoking Sangria'.

Red wine, creme de blackberry and creme de peach, ruby port, juices, and liquid nitrogen. It literally comes out smoking, as you can see in the picture. This is a rather strong sangria, but also a very good one. One day, I want to try the bazooka joe bubblegum cocktail they have there (which mom says will be disgusting). It just sounds fun.

The real reason we were at BlueZoo. I wanted to try raw oysters. I'd had them once before in my life, at a restaurant in Del Mar California in what was probably the second best dining experience of my life (the best would be Disney's V&A chef's table- oh, that was so awesome). But they were, well, alcoholic oysters. Like, they were tequila flavored and gin flavored and whatever. Awesome, but not so much like regular oysters. I wanted to see if I liked a 'regular' raw oyster.

(You might notice that there are raw oysters on Jiko's menu. The answer to that is they were cooked in hot sauce, so mom vetoed as neither of us are huge fans of spicy things.)

So we (or in this case, I- I ordered everything this meal) just ordered two oysters. They were apparently from Massachusetts, though I wrote down 'Mass anarchs' in my notebook (Brujah oysters!... no one but me got that joke). They came with a standard cocktail sauce, and then a red-wine sauce. I preferred the red wine, mom liked the cocktail.

...Anyway, they were good! Mom liked hers, too, though she says she likes them fried more. I don't know. I thought they were pretty awesome raw. One day, maybe we'll do the raw bar here or at some other seafood restaurant and see how that goes.

Remember how we had to go to the tire place in the middle of nowhere when our car was being evil? We talked to the guy in charge there for a while, and he raved about the goodness of the shrimp appetizer at BlueZoo (which is where we had planned on going that night until the car weirdness happened and we ended up at the closest place, Jiko's). So I figured we'd order the shrimp appetizer.

This is BW Country Jumbo Shrimp on white chedder grits with okra and smoked bacon butter. In general, I don't often order shrimp appetizers because I find after a while they just all taste the same and there's usually something more interesting on the menu, but... this? This was really good. The shrimp were fantastic, and the grits were incredible. I find the texture of grits, gritty (why do I like pap and not grits, I have no idea), but I got over it for this because they tasted so nice. Very good pick. Thank you, random guy at the tire place!

Mom just gave me a lecture about this choice a few days ago. "When someone is drunk," she says, "you don't order them beet salad. You order them something fatty. Like a cheeseburger."

Well, in my defense, this was only the second time in my life that I had to deal with someone drunk (my friends are crazy and have their faults, but they are very responsible drinkers, so cheers to them). So I really had no idea what to do besides 'get her to drink water and wait around a while'.

(And BlueZoo doesn't have cheeseburgers, anyway, as far as I'm aware.)

I don't like beets, to be honest. But mom loves them. So I thought getting her this might make her less drunk-grumpy and in a better mood, and it seemed to work somewhat. It's as you can see, beets, a waulnut vinagrette and goat cheese foundue (...or 'salad dressing', if you want to be honest, menu). I found the side salad fine, but basically took a small bite of each color beet and left the rest to her.

I wasn't leaving BlueZoo without having dessert. BlueZoo has some of the best desserts on property, in my opinion. Mom was giving me no help with what to order, though, so I basically just ordered the simplest thing on the menu that I knew she'd like- truffles!

Going I think, front to back, it's almond, coffee, pistachio, coconut, banana, lemon, key lime, and passion fruit. Even the banana one was good, something that surprises me each time I order this dessert (because I'm usually of the opinion that very little besides a banana itself can make banana taste good). I played a fun (to myself) game. Mom hadn't been listening to the waiter tell us what truffle was what, so I had her guess which truffle was which flavor as she sampled them. Some she got right, like the almond and coffee. Some were interesting- she thought the pistachio one tasted like coconut and and the coconut one tasted like a nut.

Well, it amused me, anyway.

By this time, I'd gotten her to drink three glasses of water, and she wasn't acting drunk anymore, so I figured it was safe to drive. So we didn't order anything else, though I would have been happy to order another dessert. >.>


I really have no idea how much mom remembers of this meal, to be honest. Though she remembered the wine, so she couldn't have been too bad. I'll post the next meal after she posts.

NEXT: The best meal of our trip. If you read the first post, I bet you can guess what it is.

 

[Redwitch]

I've been nagging her for days to post an update. She says "I don't want it to end. WAAAAAAAAAAAA!" <Big Baby>

I really thought the Blue Zoo pictures would be worse. I have not reviewed any of the pictures from this trip at all, Mikka stole the camera card. So, her food updates are my first viewing as well as yours.

Seriously, cheeseburger and fries, eggs and sausage - that is what you feed a drunk person. But I did enjoy the oysters and beet salad. I'm not clear on the shrimp? Did she eat most of it? The truffles - they are divine. (We once got two orders as our dessert didn't come out and the waiter felt bad and gave two for one.) I highly suggest you try them.

And, Mikka finely confessed the reason I was grumpy was because I didn't want to go to Blue Zoo because it was "too expensive." See, even when inebriated, I am frugal.

Everyone nag! She will get caught up in her novel writing and leave you all hanging, wondering about the best meal of the trip.....