Oh, I'm detecting nuttiness, all right! 3D Dessert Discovery (11/2) - Complete

[Dis_Yoda]

Robert Irvine Culinary Demo

Next up for us today, was the Robert Irvine Culinary Demo in the festival center. We headed there immediately after lunch & browsed the shoppes for a little bit. I thought about buying some wine & liquor, but I looked up the prices online to determine if it was a good deal& decided to just take notes of the names and if my usual store doesn't have it, have them order it for us.

We headed to line & my husband went and got our tickets.


A little before 1, they let us in & to get our seats. I really like the new set up for the kitchen demo area. It makes it a lot more easier to see the stage no matter where you sit!



Pam came up to the stage & introduced the winery.
I dazed off for a bit as I'm not a huge Cab fan for anything but when I'm eating beef.


I do like how the wine is being served in real glasses & not thimbles anymore.

After the winery spoke, Robert Irvine came out & did his intro. He was a great entertainer for the hour - including hopefully embarrassing a 10 year old boy from sucking his thumb. A few ball jokes were made based on the meatballs and he had us laughing a ton.





For the food, he made us Turkey Meatballs.


They had an Asian style sauce made with grape seed oil for the noodles. I really enjoyed them and usually I avoid meatballs!

It was well worth the fee. My husband is willing to let me book a Kitchen Memories with him if he does it next year so at least thats something new for us to try out!

[cbg1027]

Oooh Pepper Market breakfast looks better than the value's. The potatoes and bacon especially.

I'm glad to see that Ceasar from Coral Reef looking the way it does. I went there two years ago and had an awful shrimp ceasar - mostly because the dressing was super disgusting. It was like a giant thick glop of yellow mayo. Looks like they've gone with something more traditional and hopefully edible!

The demo sounds fun....I didn't know you were allowed to make ball jokes at Disney.

[franandaj]

Originally Posted by Dis_Yoda

It was well worth the fee. My husband is willing to let me book a Kitchen Memories with him if he does it next year so at least thats something new for us to try out!

So was this one of the "TBD" events? And if so, when did you find out Robert Irvine would be there?

I so hope that they bring back the F&W Festival to CA then I can go to events like you do!

[Linda67]

I have finally caught up with your excellent reviews

Sorry your Artist Point Dinner wasn't so great

Shula's looks wonderful, we've never tried it but I have heard such good reviews of the place

We've never tried Coral Reef either but I am a big seafood fan so I really should; we just always tend to end up eating in World Showcase when in Epcot

Really looking forward to reading more

[Dis_Yoda]

Originally Posted by cbg1027

Oooh Pepper Market breakfast looks better than the value's. The potatoes and bacon especially.

I'm glad to see that Ceasar from Coral Reef looking the way it does. I went there two years ago and had an awful shrimp ceasar - mostly because the dressing was super disgusting. It was like a giant thick glop of yellow mayo. Looks like they've gone with something more traditional and hopefully edible!

The demo sounds fun....I didn't know you were allowed to make ball jokes at Disney.

Yeah the pepper market was really good for breakfast. Granted there is that whole 10% service charge thing but meh.

Oh I remember that caesar! My husband and I had it and hated it.

Originally Posted by franandaj

So was this one of the "TBD" events? And if so, when did you find out Robert Irvine would be there?

I so hope that they bring back the F&W Festival to CA then I can go to events like you do!

It was a set event - his was on Friday the 21st and was announced when the rest of the events were leaked.

I hope they bring back the CA F&W Festival too!

Originally Posted by Linda67

I have finally caught up with your excellent reviews

Sorry your Artist Point Dinner wasn't so great

Shula's looks wonderful, we've never tried it but I have heard such good reviews of the place

We've never tried Coral Reef either but I am a big seafood fan so I really should; we just always tend to end up eating in World Showcase when in Epcot

Really looking forward to reading more

Glad you caught up! You should try Shula's sometime - its so worth the visit over to the dolphin for it. We tend to keep the World Showcase places for dinners than lunchs but there are so many great places to try there. I need more trips to get them all.

[Dis_Yoda]

Magic Kingdom Snack

My husband and I decided after the demo to head to MK and try to get Adventureland out of the way. Shockingly, despite arriving close to 3pm. The rides in the park were not bad at all. Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Haunted Mansion only had about 15 minute waits.

Around 4:30, I wanted a snack & I knew exactly what I wanted.



A Mickey Pretzel.

Sometimes food shaped like a mouse just tastes better!

Only issue was there were so many birds hanging out in the walkway between Frontierland and Liberty Square. I've never seen that many sitting on benches next to people waiting for handouts.

[Dis_Yoda]

Tambu Lounge

As we finished up Magic Kingdom, we decided against going to Flying Fish. We were on the tired side & just didn't want a long nicer meal today. I think we completely over did it for us as my husband is still next to me asleep despite my compulsion of rope drop at MK to get Fantasyland out of the way.

We decided to get some drinks at the Tambu Lounge while we waited for dinner.



I went with the Backscratcher while my husband had the Tropical Ginger Lemonade.

Both of them were good and I'm glad we had an out of the way table from the masses of people waiting for Ohana.

[Dis_Yoda]

Kona

After a 30 minute wait, we were seated at Kona.

Our server was well a little slow but it was nice to just sit after running around as much as we did.

We got our Bread w/ Macadamia Nut Butter


I ordered the Tropical Macaw

I blanked here - what I really wanted was the Ultimate Long Island but my brain and mouth didn't work together. It was nice and fruity though so I guess it works for Kona.

My husband passed on an appetizer.

I went for one of my favorite things at Kona.
Duck Potstickers


I really love these, especially the sauce. In fact I used the bread to make sure I got all the sauce when I was done.

My husband went with the Coconut Almond Chicken.


He thought this would be a home run as he loves coconut and he loves almonds. It wasn't. He told me it tasted like sugar upon sugar upon sugar. He ate about 2 bites and was done.

I choose another appetizer for my meal,
Fried Rock Shrimp


They were ok. The breading definitely needed some salt or more seasonings to it as it just tasted bland.



We decided to take our desserts to go and head back to the resort.

My husband had the White Chocolate Cheesecake.


I had the Banana-Chocolate Cream Brulee


Both were wonderful.

I think we're just going to stick to Kona for evening desserts (well and my potstickers too) as for entrees we just aren't the biggest fans.

[janabananas]

Originally Posted by Dis_Yoda

Kona

After a 30 minute wait, we were seated at Kona.

Our server was well a little slow but it was nice to just sit after running around as much as we did.

We got our Bread w/ Macadamia Nut Butter


I ordered the Tropical Macaw

I blanked here - what I really wanted was the Ultimate Long Island but my brain and mouth didn't work together. It was nice and fruity though so I guess it works for Kona.

My husband passed on an appetizer.

I went for one of my favorite things at Kona.
Duck Potstickers


I really love these, especially the sauce. In fact I used the bread to make sure I got all the sauce when I was done.

My husband went with the Coconut Almond Chicken.


He thought this would be a home run as he loves coconut and he loves almonds. It wasn't. He told me it tasted like sugar upon sugar upon sugar. He ate about 2 bites and was done.

I choose another appetizer for my meal,
Fried Rock Shrimp


They were ok. The breading definitely needed some salt or more seasonings to it as it just tasted bland.



We decided to take our desserts to go and head back to the resort.

My husband had the White Chocolate Cheesecake.


I had the Banana-Chocolate Cream Brulee


Both were wonderful.

I think we're just going to stick to Kona for evening desserts (well and my potstickers too) as for entrees we just aren't the biggest fans.

That stinks that you were unsatisfied with your entrees. When we went, I had the ribeye and liked it LOTS, but wasn't a huge fan of the potstickers. Dbf LOVED his sweet potato soup app & Tuna Oscar entree. But I LOVED!! the banana-chocolate creme brulee and take out Lapu Lapu. I was going to order the coconut chicken and I am glad I didn't because I don't want dessert for my entree.

Thanks for your review!

[librarygeek]

That cooking demonstration looks like so much fun! The food you got to try looks really tasty too.

Too bad your food at Kona wasn't all that great - I would think I would like the chicken too since I love coconut and almonds, but not if it just tastes like sugar! Hopefully they'll improve that because it sounds like such a promising dish.

[Dis_Yoda]

Originally Posted by janabananas

That stinks that you were unsatisfied with your entrees. When we went, I had the ribeye and liked it LOTS, but wasn't a huge fan of the potstickers. Dbf LOVED his sweet potato soup app & Tuna Oscar entree. But I LOVED!! the banana-chocolate creme brulee and take out Lapu Lapu. I was going to order the coconut chicken and I am glad I didn't because I don't want dessert for my entree.

Thanks for your review!

The people around us that had the ribeye seemed to enjoyed it, but as we had Shula's the night before and have Le Cellier tonight, we wanted to stay away from the beef.

I love many of their desserts - we've had most of them over the years. You can't really go wrong with any of them.

Originally Posted by librarygeek

That cooking demonstration looks like so much fun! The food you got to try looks really tasty too.

Too bad your food at Kona wasn't all that great - I would think I would like the chicken too since I love coconut and almonds, but not if it just tastes like sugar! Hopefully they'll improve that because it sounds like such a promising dish.

It was really fun. Much more engaging than some others I've seen. I usually hate meatballs but I liked those.

Hopefully if you get it - it wouldn't be as sweet.

[Dis_Yoda]

Contempo Cafe

This morning started out slow. Our alarm went off at 7:00am but my husband refused to wake up. Didn't he know we needed to get to MK for park opening so we wouldn't have to deal with major crowds in Fantasyland?

Yeah, my whining didn't work.

He slept until 8:30am while I played around on my computer and dealt with some of the work stuff I needed to do.

I knew what I wanted for breakfast this morning ever since I had seen onelittlespark's dining report the other week.

We finally left the room at 8:50am & headed to the Contemporary for breakfast.

I went with the Salted Caramel Waffle w/ Bacon



I love salted caramel and I love bananas. I loved this waffle. However, 2 of them was just too much. I ate 1 and was done. My husband tasted my second one and liked it.

My husband went for their Bounty Platter


They forgot his sausage but he survived. The eggs were nice as were the fresh out of the oven potatoes. French Toast was ok and Disney's Biscuits just suck. He would go for eggs & potatoes only next time.

We then headed to the Magic Kingdom where the Monorail stopped for about 20 minutes due to a break down or them bringing another train online or something. I was happy I had a seat and not having to stand.

We got to Magic Kingdom a little after 10am & it was crowded.

We headed over to Fantasyland as we know it gets crowded fast. We were too late. They had arrived.

We did get free fastpasses for Philharmagic


And I liked the food quotes in the line for Winnie the Pooh


But after we used our fastpasses for Peter Pan we left. It was way too crowded and they just kept pouring in.

[Dis_Yoda]

Paradiso 37

After we left the Magic Kingdom, we had to visit Downtown Disney.

Last night, I noticed in my gmail a notice from Chase that my credit card had tried to be used for a $770 purchase at LukOil in Russia on 10/22. As I'm currently in Orlando, that wasn't possible as there was no way for me to get to Russia & back that quick. Talking with the fraud agent last night, I was told to pick up my rewards card from DTD and transfer them over or else they would be held 5 days while the transfer occurred.

So after picking up the card, my husband and I debated on lunch. After I told him the ice cream place isn't a reasonable lunch, he finally decided to try Paradiso 37 (ugh, but I'll be a good wife and let him try it)

It was pretty much empty in there and we were sat at a high top near the bar. The bartender was the waiter too.

I ordered a Pisco Sour (yum!) and my husband had a Pina Colada.

Looking over the menu, there wasn't much I wanted. My husband found something he wanted though.

A burrito.


I sat there looking at him when he ordered this as I know he wouldn't love it as much as where we go for Mexican at home. I was right. He said it was ok - he didn't like that they put BBQ sauce on top in place of the red sauce.

I went for a Chicken Quesadilla

I chose it as I knew it would be something I liked that doesn't really go wrong no matter where you order it. I was right. It was enjoyable but not $12.99 enjoyable.

Their room charge system was also not working so it took a while to get our bill straightened.

I dont think we plan on returning again.

After lunch, we headed back to the room for me to finish my work that has to be done. My husband is catching up on his tv shows. We're going to head into EPCOT tonight for some booths & dinner @ Le Cellier.

[auntfrannie]

Love the live reviews! How disappointing that you had two bummer meals! I hope it gets better for you!

[librarygeek]

Those Mickey's Philharmagic FPs were popping out left and right while we were there! Interesting, though we never did make it on Peter Pan - why is the wait time always so long for that ride?

Yeah, Paradiso 37 looks just eh. Though I would have been fine with ice cream for lunch