oybolshoi
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2004
- Messages
- 11,879
Tuesday, October 24th - They're Taking Me To Marrakesh...
The search for Plankton's mouse ears was a fruitless one - in all that wind there was no way that we were going to find half of a hollow antenna ball just sitting around waiting for us to pick it up. That baby was, pardon the expression, gone with the wind.
Since we were getting close to our appointed meeting time with the parents in Morocco, Jay and I decided that we might as well show up early and scope out the restaurant location. The Morocco pavilion at Epcot is really cool - if I didn't know any better (and I don't) I'd swear we were in some ancient, dusty marketplace in northern Africa. Restaurant Marrakesh is tucked far back in a crooked, winding, little alleyway - it's so far removed from the normal hustle and bustle of Epcot that it's very easy to imagine you're some place other than a theme park in Florida.
On our way back to the real world Jay and I strolled through the Tangierine Cafe, primarily to satisfy my curiosity about their alcoholic drink offerings. There was little, if anything, from a food standpoint, that I would want to eat...statement based on personal taste and lack of intestinal fortitude.
So, guess who we spotted on the cafe's patio...stuffing his face like a man who'd just emerged from a two-week desert crossing with nothing but a few moldy figs to sustain him?
Yep.
And he was finishing...not a snack, but a meal.
Jay leaned close and whispered in my ear the exact thought that was going through my mind. "I guess your mom didn't let him order anything from the food booths."
I shook my head as we approached the table and waved to get Jon's attention. We plopped down next to him and saw that a few stray crumbs were all that remained of his mid-afternoon feast. Grimace was nowhere to be seen.
"So," I asked, "what do you think of the Festival so far? Don't they have some great snacks?"
Jon's response was a combination nod / shrug, which from him means: While the anecdotal evidence so far suggests that your assertion phrased as a question is true, I do not have enough empirical evidence to wholeheartedly endorse it.
Before I could open my mouth to ask him another question, a cloud passed in front of the sun, the birds suddenly fell silent mid-chirp, and a blast of cold air brushed the hairs along the back of my neck.
Somewhere in the background I swear I heard the faint strains of the opening score from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Grimace had arrived.
"Have you had a good afternoon?" I asked in a horribly fake cheerful voice. "Jay and I have tried all kinds of yummy treats and we've been shopping and we took a bunch of pictures with Plankton, and..."
"It's cold." Her tone was slightly accusatory, as if I were somehow responsible for the sudden change in the weather.
"Well, yeah, it is cold; but there are plenty of places to go and warm up - surely you haven't been standing around outside all afternoon?"
She shrugged.
"Well, did you have anything to eat? There's a lot to choose from."
"We shared a cabbage roll over at the Polish booth."
"That's it? No wonder Jon just finished an entire meal."
"Those prices are ridiculous and it's too cold to eat outside. And there's nowhere to sit - I don't like to stand while I eat."
I could feel my mouth working to form words, but the only thing that emerged was a noise similar to the one Patty Duke made near the end of The Miracle Worker, "Wuh...wuh..."
I felt Jay's cautionary hand on my arm. "Remember how hot it was last Thursday when we had our food and wine pairing at Coral Reef? We went there early to cool off and they were handing out cold cider. Maybe this restaurant will have some coffee ready for us."
This was an absolutely brilliant tactical move on Jason's part - he saved me from saying something really rude, he got Jon away from the cafe just when it looked like he might go back to clean out what was left of their current food inventory, and he got all of us out of the cold weather.
Sadly for us and for Restaurant Marrakesh, we had apparently experienced the gold standard of Food & Wine Pairing events at Coral Reef last week and there was no place left to go but down. To begin with there was not a separate waiting area for the special event guests at Restaurant Marrakesh like there was at Coral Reef, so we were all crowded together in their small lobby, getting in the way of CMs and park guests who were trying to check in for their ADRs.
And to our disappointment no one offered us a hot beverage while we waited - I had really hoped that there would be some hot mint tea or some specialty coffee available for us to sample. In all fairness, they didn't have to give us anything - it wasn't part of the program. But no one at Coral Reef had to offer us anything extra last week when the mercury was at the opposite end of the thermometer. This difference in service levels between the two restaurants really set the tone for both events in my mind.
Here's Grimmie and me while we were waiting to be seated for the event. She almost looks content, doesn't she?
Just like Sweet Sundays, there was no one seating people by party, so it was another bum-rush to find a place to sit. There was no menu provided so we didn't know what courses we were going to be having nor did we know which wines we would be trying. And, there was only one set of flatware at each place setting. We were going to be served three different courses but each of us only had one set of flatware? Yucko!!
Here's the table:
The interior of the restaurant is gorgeous, but for some reason we only took one picture.
And by the time we were seated Grimace was back to her old self. Check out this picture, which we've titled: I Blame You For Everything.
To quote Dave Chappelle in his role as Clayton Bixby, "If you've got hate in your heart let it out."
The guy doing most of the talking at this event, I believe he was the winery representative, said that the interior of this restaurant was modeled after the inside of a palace in Morocco. I'd love to tell you what this very informative and engaging person's name was, but I don't know it. You wanna know why I don't know it? Because Restaurant Marrakesh didn't provide any information in writing at this food and wine pairing. The chef, whose name is also a mystery, came out and talked at us for a few minutes. At that time he told us about the three courses he was preparing for our tasting enjoyment.
Brace yourselves my friends...no dessert?!?!?!?
Bah! Don't they eat dessert in Morocco?
If I hadn't already paid in advance and if I weren't trapped at the end of a table for 14 with no means of escape I'd be outta here and on my way to the Boulangerie Patisserie faster than you could say chocolate eclair with a side order of profiteroles.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
I'm going to do my best to let you know what we were served, but I'm warning you now that my spelling is atrocious and some of these dishes have names that I had to guess at since I had to write everything down on the paper place mat on the table. As for the wines, all I know is a name and a region - no information about the specific wineries was provided. Tsk Tsk Tsk.
Course I: Bell Pepper & Tomato Salad with Spices (served cold) and Seafood Bastilla, served with a wine called Masianco from Italy.
I think the seafood part of this was OK. Jason said that the entire dish was good - very flavorful and spicy - and he should know because he ended up eating most of mine, too. I did like the wine, which was a white similar to a Pinot Grigio - my favorite!
Course II: Lemon Chicken with Couscous served with a wine called Ksar Blanc from Morocco.
This wasn't bad. I actually liked the couscous but the chicken was a bit chewy. Jason says this dish was also tasty - who am I to dispute his claim? As for the wine, I recall that it was actually the best of the three we tried, but I'm not sure why. Oh, for tasting notes like we had from Coral Reef!
Course III, AKA not dessert: Beef Shishkabobs with Marinade served with a wine called Condessa de Leganza Crianza from Spain.
I remember this being too spicy for me and I had to hand most of it off to the men in my party. As previously mentioned, when you have inflammatory bowel disease spicy food can be the kiss of death. I can drink like a fool and never have issues, but let me eat some over-spiced meat and it's time to pay the ER a visit. Again, for your reference, the husband liked this dish just fine. The wine was a red, and it paired well but I didn't really like it too much. Too strong for my taste - it was a man's wine!
So, to sum it up, this was all about trying something different. That's a good thing, I can do that. And since everyone else in our little group seemed to enjoy this experience it was money well spent. Would I do another food and wine pairing at Restaurant Marrakesh? Nope; but that's not because the food was bad - it just wasn't to my taste.
On our way back to the room we stopped at everyone's favorite French bakery and picked up...yes, you guessed it - chocolate eclairs!! We saved them for breakfast because we had tickets to Mickey's not so Scary Halloween Party and we had to get our costumes on for a frigid night of trick-or-treating around the Magic Kingdom.
Don't we look cute?
Jason's mom made both of our costumes. She offered to make red pants for Jason to really complete the Mickey Mouse look, but he told her that he would be too hot to wear pants to the MK.
Don't you hate pants?
Coming soon - the completion of Day 7 as we all suffer probable hypothermia at MNSSHP.
The search for Plankton's mouse ears was a fruitless one - in all that wind there was no way that we were going to find half of a hollow antenna ball just sitting around waiting for us to pick it up. That baby was, pardon the expression, gone with the wind.
Since we were getting close to our appointed meeting time with the parents in Morocco, Jay and I decided that we might as well show up early and scope out the restaurant location. The Morocco pavilion at Epcot is really cool - if I didn't know any better (and I don't) I'd swear we were in some ancient, dusty marketplace in northern Africa. Restaurant Marrakesh is tucked far back in a crooked, winding, little alleyway - it's so far removed from the normal hustle and bustle of Epcot that it's very easy to imagine you're some place other than a theme park in Florida.
On our way back to the real world Jay and I strolled through the Tangierine Cafe, primarily to satisfy my curiosity about their alcoholic drink offerings. There was little, if anything, from a food standpoint, that I would want to eat...statement based on personal taste and lack of intestinal fortitude.
So, guess who we spotted on the cafe's patio...stuffing his face like a man who'd just emerged from a two-week desert crossing with nothing but a few moldy figs to sustain him?
Yep.
And he was finishing...not a snack, but a meal.
Jay leaned close and whispered in my ear the exact thought that was going through my mind. "I guess your mom didn't let him order anything from the food booths."
I shook my head as we approached the table and waved to get Jon's attention. We plopped down next to him and saw that a few stray crumbs were all that remained of his mid-afternoon feast. Grimace was nowhere to be seen.
"So," I asked, "what do you think of the Festival so far? Don't they have some great snacks?"
Jon's response was a combination nod / shrug, which from him means: While the anecdotal evidence so far suggests that your assertion phrased as a question is true, I do not have enough empirical evidence to wholeheartedly endorse it.
Before I could open my mouth to ask him another question, a cloud passed in front of the sun, the birds suddenly fell silent mid-chirp, and a blast of cold air brushed the hairs along the back of my neck.
Somewhere in the background I swear I heard the faint strains of the opening score from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Grimace had arrived.
"Have you had a good afternoon?" I asked in a horribly fake cheerful voice. "Jay and I have tried all kinds of yummy treats and we've been shopping and we took a bunch of pictures with Plankton, and..."
"It's cold." Her tone was slightly accusatory, as if I were somehow responsible for the sudden change in the weather.
"Well, yeah, it is cold; but there are plenty of places to go and warm up - surely you haven't been standing around outside all afternoon?"
She shrugged.
"Well, did you have anything to eat? There's a lot to choose from."
"We shared a cabbage roll over at the Polish booth."
"That's it? No wonder Jon just finished an entire meal."
"Those prices are ridiculous and it's too cold to eat outside. And there's nowhere to sit - I don't like to stand while I eat."
I could feel my mouth working to form words, but the only thing that emerged was a noise similar to the one Patty Duke made near the end of The Miracle Worker, "Wuh...wuh..."
I felt Jay's cautionary hand on my arm. "Remember how hot it was last Thursday when we had our food and wine pairing at Coral Reef? We went there early to cool off and they were handing out cold cider. Maybe this restaurant will have some coffee ready for us."
This was an absolutely brilliant tactical move on Jason's part - he saved me from saying something really rude, he got Jon away from the cafe just when it looked like he might go back to clean out what was left of their current food inventory, and he got all of us out of the cold weather.
Sadly for us and for Restaurant Marrakesh, we had apparently experienced the gold standard of Food & Wine Pairing events at Coral Reef last week and there was no place left to go but down. To begin with there was not a separate waiting area for the special event guests at Restaurant Marrakesh like there was at Coral Reef, so we were all crowded together in their small lobby, getting in the way of CMs and park guests who were trying to check in for their ADRs.
And to our disappointment no one offered us a hot beverage while we waited - I had really hoped that there would be some hot mint tea or some specialty coffee available for us to sample. In all fairness, they didn't have to give us anything - it wasn't part of the program. But no one at Coral Reef had to offer us anything extra last week when the mercury was at the opposite end of the thermometer. This difference in service levels between the two restaurants really set the tone for both events in my mind.
Here's Grimmie and me while we were waiting to be seated for the event. She almost looks content, doesn't she?
Just like Sweet Sundays, there was no one seating people by party, so it was another bum-rush to find a place to sit. There was no menu provided so we didn't know what courses we were going to be having nor did we know which wines we would be trying. And, there was only one set of flatware at each place setting. We were going to be served three different courses but each of us only had one set of flatware? Yucko!!
Here's the table:
The interior of the restaurant is gorgeous, but for some reason we only took one picture.
And by the time we were seated Grimace was back to her old self. Check out this picture, which we've titled: I Blame You For Everything.
To quote Dave Chappelle in his role as Clayton Bixby, "If you've got hate in your heart let it out."
The guy doing most of the talking at this event, I believe he was the winery representative, said that the interior of this restaurant was modeled after the inside of a palace in Morocco. I'd love to tell you what this very informative and engaging person's name was, but I don't know it. You wanna know why I don't know it? Because Restaurant Marrakesh didn't provide any information in writing at this food and wine pairing. The chef, whose name is also a mystery, came out and talked at us for a few minutes. At that time he told us about the three courses he was preparing for our tasting enjoyment.
Brace yourselves my friends...no dessert?!?!?!?
Bah! Don't they eat dessert in Morocco?
If I hadn't already paid in advance and if I weren't trapped at the end of a table for 14 with no means of escape I'd be outta here and on my way to the Boulangerie Patisserie faster than you could say chocolate eclair with a side order of profiteroles.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
I'm going to do my best to let you know what we were served, but I'm warning you now that my spelling is atrocious and some of these dishes have names that I had to guess at since I had to write everything down on the paper place mat on the table. As for the wines, all I know is a name and a region - no information about the specific wineries was provided. Tsk Tsk Tsk.
Course I: Bell Pepper & Tomato Salad with Spices (served cold) and Seafood Bastilla, served with a wine called Masianco from Italy.
I think the seafood part of this was OK. Jason said that the entire dish was good - very flavorful and spicy - and he should know because he ended up eating most of mine, too. I did like the wine, which was a white similar to a Pinot Grigio - my favorite!
Course II: Lemon Chicken with Couscous served with a wine called Ksar Blanc from Morocco.
This wasn't bad. I actually liked the couscous but the chicken was a bit chewy. Jason says this dish was also tasty - who am I to dispute his claim? As for the wine, I recall that it was actually the best of the three we tried, but I'm not sure why. Oh, for tasting notes like we had from Coral Reef!
Course III, AKA not dessert: Beef Shishkabobs with Marinade served with a wine called Condessa de Leganza Crianza from Spain.
I remember this being too spicy for me and I had to hand most of it off to the men in my party. As previously mentioned, when you have inflammatory bowel disease spicy food can be the kiss of death. I can drink like a fool and never have issues, but let me eat some over-spiced meat and it's time to pay the ER a visit. Again, for your reference, the husband liked this dish just fine. The wine was a red, and it paired well but I didn't really like it too much. Too strong for my taste - it was a man's wine!
So, to sum it up, this was all about trying something different. That's a good thing, I can do that. And since everyone else in our little group seemed to enjoy this experience it was money well spent. Would I do another food and wine pairing at Restaurant Marrakesh? Nope; but that's not because the food was bad - it just wasn't to my taste.
On our way back to the room we stopped at everyone's favorite French bakery and picked up...yes, you guessed it - chocolate eclairs!! We saved them for breakfast because we had tickets to Mickey's not so Scary Halloween Party and we had to get our costumes on for a frigid night of trick-or-treating around the Magic Kingdom.
Don't we look cute?
Jason's mom made both of our costumes. She offered to make red pants for Jason to really complete the Mickey Mouse look, but he told her that he would be too hot to wear pants to the MK.
Don't you hate pants?
Coming soon - the completion of Day 7 as we all suffer probable hypothermia at MNSSHP.
I say I won't but every once-in-a-while, she rears her ugly head--out of my mouth!
I got chills reading this! Nothing worse than a cranky Grimace! 
Thanks for your review of the food and wine pairing at Restaurant Marrakesh... I don't think we'll be trying this one. In fact, I have to admit, we've never eaten at Marrakesh. Don't plan to either. Not my cup o' tea. Anyway, love the Minnie & Mickey outfits! ...and Jay wasn't even drunk when this picture was taken? So, Grimace & Jon went to 
It's good you have a positive attitude about it. "Always look at the bright side of your life..." 
) After all, what if this is as good as it gets? 
Anyway, I am so glad that the Grimace is back! Hahaha... she did look content in that one picture, but that's it. I loved your caption/title for that photo: "I Blame You For Everything." Once again, I was 
