Thursday, October 9th - Alrighty Festival ... Dazzle Us!!!
One of the things that most concerned us about staying at Saratoga Springs this fall was the transportation issue. We've been spoiled by our DVC membership at the Beach Club Villas, which is our October resort of choice due to the easy-peasy Epcot access granted by the International Gateway.
Our motto when staying at the Beach Club is: No bus; feet!
Well, at Saratoga Springs the more appropriate motto is: Have feet; need bus. Now where's the damn bus???
To be fair, the buses actually were running in pretty timely fashion at the resort itself. Even at the parks we only had one wait that I would term as excessive, so we really can't complain. We also noticed that there were transportation CMs at the first and last Saratoga bus stops - they were asking people where they were headed and were trying to manage the bus traffic accordingly. There were some glitches during our stay but for the most part the system seemed to work pretty well and I applaud Disney or Saratoga Springs management for taking this step and making an effort to improve a situation that in years past has been downright craptacular.
Have bus, will travel - now step on it!
We arrived at Epcot a little before ten that morning and hopped on Spaceship Earth to check out the wondrous improvements that were made to the attraction last year. Our overall impression - the interactive stuff was goofy and kind of fun but we were pretty underwhelmed.
Crowds were already rather high for the day so Jay and I killed some time over at the Festival Welcome Center. I learned my lesson from last year and made sure that we purchased our F&W gear the moment we found the appropriate sizes. We took a gander at the booze selections but opted not to buy any alcohol - for the most part our booze prices in Stinktown are better than those at the festival and if we find something we really like while visiting we make note of it and then purchase or order it at home. Two things we noticed this year ... the F&W collector pin set is of lesser quality than the ones we purchased last year and the F&W Festival cookbook only has 20 recipes.
The cookbook issue really miffed us both. We
always buy the festival cookbook and with all the new food booth entries this year we were really looking forward to some new recipes. Instead, this lovely binder had a big sticker on the front reading: 20 of your favorite F&W Festival recipes!
Only twenty recipes? Why not all of them? What's going on here? And since when do they know what our favorite recipes are? Talk about over-priced presumption. This is the first time in something like six years that we don't have a F&W cookbook to commemorate our visit and it still makes me kind of sad. I can't wait to hear the official line of reasoning for increasing the cookbook price by $8 from last year while reducing the number of recipes by half.
Enough about those marketing bastiches and their infernal changes designed to charge us all more for less. Let's go to the festival and have some food before we come back to the Welcome Center and try to attend that free Banfi wine seminar!
First stop:
Greece!
Greek Salad & Spanakopita
We thought the salad was really tasty - crisp and refreshing even with those horrid red onions and lurking olives! I didn't care much for the bread that was included on the side - it was really hard and tasteless. Something soft and warm like pita bread would have been a better match in my opinion. As for the spanakopita, it was chock full of cheese and spinach and Jay really liked it. I took a bite but I'm not a fan ... too much spinach not enough cheese.
While we enjoyed our first taste of the festival Jay and I had a reunion of sorts with the ducks and Ibis ... Ibii ... Ibises ... (???) that patrol the banks of the world showcase lagoon in search of handouts from generous, often tipsy guests. Usually the birds are much more active, but they must have needed a late morning nap on this day. They were so cute that we couldn't resist taking a picture.
Mmmmm, foie gras ....
Second stop:
Puerto Rico!
Mofongo; Plantain and Beef Casserole; Frozen Mojito
For those of you who, like me, may not know what mofongo is, here's a little help: mofongo is considered the signature dish of Puerto Rico; it's a mound of mashed up plantains into which seafood, or beef, or veggies has been mixed into.
I just like the way the word sounds: Mofongo ... mofongo ... mofongo!
As for the food itself, I actually was surprised by how much I liked the mofongo. The plantains didn't really have much taste ... they were just a big ol' mound of mush ... but the shrimpie salsa that was added to it was very tasty and had a nice, mild spiciness that really perked up the flavor.
The casserole dish was less enjoyable in my opinion - this one was too spicy and the beef was stringy and chewy. Jay got to keep most of this to himself ... lucky him.
The real winner at this booth was the frozen mojito! We're not big fans of mojitos in general so this was a bit of a risk but it really was terrific. Very refreshing - the rum was definitely pronounced but it was offset by just the right amount of mintiness. Our only gripe is that for the $6.50 price tag we really thought the portion should have been larger.
Third stop:
The Mouse Catch!
Three Cheese Selection; Prosecco
Jay and I lurves us some cheese and we were very pleased to find that Epcot had added a cheesemonger booth to the F&W lineup for 2008. The cheese selection here was safe, designed to appeal to a broad audience without offending their noses or stomachs with foot-reeking, mildew-tasting dairy by-products.
The three cheeses being offered were as follows, tasting notes courtesy of igourmet:
Dorothea: A pasteurized goat's milk cheese from the Netherlands. This is an award-winning cheese; it has a firm body and a full, nutty flavor that develops over the 60-day aging process. This cheese is flavored with potato skins and basil oil.
Asiago Pressato Doc: A pasteurized cow's milk cheese from Italy. This is a younger, sweeter version of the Asiago that most people are familiar with; it's aged between 20 and 40 days and has a springy, creamy interior.
Manchego: A pasteurized sheep's milk cheese from Spain. This is considered one of Spain's most famous cheeses and it is made from pure La Mancha sheep's milk. It is prized for its rich, complex flavor and slightly grainy texture.
The only cheese that was new to us was the Dorothea, but we thought all three selections were excellent! We liked that each cheese was made from a different type of milk and thought the serving sizes were very generous. And the Prosecco was a nice complement to all three cheeses, although I think a glass of tawny port would have been better!
Fourth stop:
Mexico!
Quesadilla con Chorizo; Capirotada (bread pudding); Chilaquile
OMIGAWD! Mexico has a new food item on its menu!!!
Yes, it's true ... along with that which we have always come to expect from our friends south of the border, there was a third food choice ... and it was dessert! Yeah baby!
So, what is there to say about the quesadilla that hasn't already been said? Not much, other than that I preferred this so much more when it included chicken as well as chorizo. Jay said he thought the chilaquile was very good and well prepared (and generously portioned), but I don't like them very much. The scary green sauce doesn't sit well with the Crohn goblin.
As for dessert, it was good. More like a coffee cake than an actual bread pudding, the best part was the caramel sauce that was drizzled over the top. They served this warm, which I thought really brought out some great cinnamon flavoring along with hints of chocolate.
Hard to believe but that's all we had for the first day ... coming soon will be a review of a free wine seiminar and then after that a truly gluttonous dinner at CA Grill.
Thanks for reading!
)
I just got done making our reservation for January! 
