2014 Epcot Food and Wine Festival 9/19-11/10

[kimmar067]

Today is my third and final day at the F&WF. Here are my favorites:

Patagonia - roasted salmon with quinoa salad and arugula chimichurri
Mexico (never disappoints!) - shrimp taco and sweet corn cheese cake
Farm Fresh - Pepper bacon hash with sweet corn, potatoes, hollandaise and pickled jalapenos. In my opinion should be on the breakfast/brunch menu of a number of Disney restaurants - would be great with scrambled eggs
Duke's Cold Nose Brown Ale, also at Farm Fresh
Hops & Barley - Florida grass-fed beef slider with pimento cheese - the cheese really made the burger. Also, the carrot cake with craisins and cream cheese icing was divine
New Belgium Brewing "Snapshot", also at Hops & Barley
France - creme brulee caramel fleur de sel - truly outstanding - I consider myself a creme brulee "expert"
Canada - seared rainbow trout - good, but not as good as last year.

Major Disappointments

New Zealand - lamb meatball was tough, dry, unwieldy
However,Kim Crawford pinot noir was excellent as usual

Australia(!) - garlic shrimp had NO discernible garlic!! lamb chop was tough as an old boot. Pavlova was good but not spectacular
Nine Stones Shiraz was very good

China - Roasted duck in a steamed bun. Bun was tender but duck was chewy and dry. Entire tray was swimming in hoisin sauce

Germany(!) - bratwurst was not nearly as good as in previous years. Doughnut filled with apricot jam was bland.

Hope some folks find this helpful. Also, if you attempt to buy wine at the Festival Center you are required to LEAVE THE PARK IMMEDIATELY with it.
I said thanks, but no thanks.

....thanks for your honest opinions! Creme brûlée` is my absolute FAVE, so I am excited about trying some and that roasted salmon sounds really intriguing....thanks again! Shame about that brat though...

 

[stasijane]

It's amazing how fast time is going. We leave in 13 days for our trip and I am beyond excited. I keep looking over the kiosk menus to try and keep everything fresh in my mind but I am sure once I get there I will forget everything out of excitement.

 

[Aerinha]

I made a list of everything I wanted to try when menus came out. Have added and subtracted based on reviews (spicy off) rave (on). So in 8 days I will be the woman consulting a list while standing in front of booths.

 

[DisneyJen]

On our way to FW!! Tomorrow we start off with the French Regional Lunch Taking three newbies with us next week so it should be interesting

 

[Tamar]

PFTS was great tonight. Amazingly, one of the longest lines was for the vegan, gluten free "chicken" milanese....what an open-minded crowd! (it was good!)

 

[kimmar067]

I made a list of everything I wanted to try when menus came out. Have added and subtracted based on reviews (spicy off) rave (on). So in 8 days I will be the woman consulting a list while standing in front of booths.

....I really should do that, to make a GF list for my DH...

 

[conandrob240]

Enjoying F&W right now but just one comment. Folks, if you can't find your own table, don't try to force yourself onto someone else's table! This happened to us today. Some strangers came over and threw their drink trays on our already occupied table (and they are SMALL tables at F&W) and announced they were sharing. Didn't ask, just forced. I talked to security and they said oh NO, they can't do that! It not any different than a restaurant. If someone else has the table, you can't have it. Why some people think this is okay, even after they're asked to leave, I don't know.

What I find rude is people like you who hunker down and think they own a table for the night. If everyone treated the event as intended- a mingling, roaming cocktail party there'd be no table issues. If I need to stop for a minute and put my wine down to cut an item if food, I am going to do so at the closest table that has a spare corner available. Believe me, I don't want to join your bunker table. I want to cut, sip and move on. But if I need to stop and cut, I will.

( and yes, I understand a small percent if people need to sit down. But the majority do not need to claim an entire table for the whole night)

 

[kimmar067]

What I find rude is people like you who hunker down and think they own a table for the night. If everyone treated the event as intended- a mingling, roaming cocktail party there'd be no table issues. If I need to stop for a minute and put my wine down to cut an item if food, I am going to do so at the closest table that has a spare corner available. Believe me, I don't want to join your bunker table. I want to cut, sip and move on. But if I need to stop and cut, I will.

( and yes, I understand a small percent if people need to sit down. But the majority do not need to claim an entire table for the whole night)

.....ummmm, where in their post did it say they were "hunkered down"? ...just curious, is all....

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

.....ummmm, where in their post did it say they were "hunkered down"? ...just curious, is all....

I think the two posts are really unrelated. Poster one talking about rude wastalking about general standup tables in the park

I think the second poster was talking about the people who hunker down at PFTS.

 

[conandrob240]

I was talking bout PFTS with the bunkering down but the same rule applies to standing hi top tables around the world. They aren't tours, they are there for people to lean on, cut a piece of food, etc

 

[tony67]

I see we are back on this table sharing issue.

I have no issue with someone sharing a table I am using, but it is polite to ask, I've never had anyone just plop their stuff down and announce they were sharing our table - and I would never do that without asking polity.

I've had lots of great conversation at F&W with people that shared a spot with me - it's usually not an issue at all.

Also if I am standing near a table with open space - it's not unusual for people to ask if I;d like to share their table - some times I do and sometimes I don't - but I always thank them for the offer. There is no reason to think it's your table.

I'm sure on a weekends when people are overindulging you may find people a bit more rude about this, and maybe that is what happened in this case. Maybe the OP did overact a bit going to security, but whatever.

One other thing to keep in mind (although it does not sound like the case in this issue) - it's not unusual for Europeans to just sit down at a table with others and have a coffee or whatever at a self service place. It's part of the culture, they may or may not say a word to you. I recall finding this quite odd my first time at a coffee shop in Dublin. A guy just sat down with his coffee (or tea more likely back then) at the table I was at and started reading his paper - not even an announcement that he was sharing my table - not even a glance at me. It was just the norm.

 

[DisneyJen]

Yesterday's French Regional featured the wines from Bordeaux. It was fantastic!! We shared a table with two other couples who we didn't know but had a very enjoyable afternoon.

We didn't do any booths yesterday as they were packed!

Getting ready to head into EPCOT to check things out.

 

[Gryhndmom]

At F&W and meeting lots of nice people while sharing a table ! DH did not want to try the veggie haggis (which is really good and not made in the traditional Scottish haggis way !) but I did for my mother-land of Scotland...yummy ! We have tasted about half way around the world and so far no real bombs for us...

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I just took my four stemless wine glasses out of the dishwasher. Talk about cheap. After one washing. One of them had no logo and the other three all had damage to the logo I checked the box and it does not say hand wash only. Luckily I'm going back to Epcot in two weeks. Hopefully they'll give me a credit for this junk. I bought the wine glasses a few years ago at food and wine They are great still look just as good as new. I guess raising the prices once again resulted in lower quality

 

[Gryhndmom]

I just took my four stemless wine glasses out of the dishwasher. Talk about cheap. After one washing. One of them had no logo and the other three all had damage to the logo I checked the box and it does not say hand wash only. Luckily I'm going back to Epcot in two weeks. Hopefully they'll give me a credit for this junk. I bought the wine glasses a few years ago at food and wine They are great still look just as good as new. I guess raising the prices once again resulted in lower quality

Glad I read your post before buying the new glasses this year! We too really like the wine glasses from previous years and like yours are holding up great !

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Glad I read your post before buying the new glasses this year! We too really like the wine glasses from previous years and like yours are holding up great !

Found the receipt. $35 for that junke. What a ripoff

 

[Tozzie]

I just took my four stemless wine glasses out of the dishwasher. Talk about cheap. After one washing. One of them had no logo and the other three all had damage to the logo I checked the box and it does not say hand wash only. Luckily I'm going back to Epcot in two weeks. Hopefully they'll give me a credit for this junk. I bought the wine glasses a few years ago at food and wine They are great still look just as good as new. I guess raising the prices once again resulted in lower quality

I buy a set of the stemless glasses each year and the glasses themselves have a sticker that says either hand wash or do not use dishwasher I cant rembber what it said exactly and to be quite honest weather it comes from disney or any other place I would never put glasses like that with a logo in the doshwasher to begin with.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I buy a set of the stemless glasses each year and the glasses themselves have a sticker that says either hand wash or do not use dishwasher I cant rembber what it said exactly and to be quite honest weather it comes from disney or any other place I would never put glasses like that with a logo in the doshwasher to begin with.

There were no stickers on mine and these are not fine crystal. This should not have happened after one wash.

 

[LauraLea]

There were no stickers on mine and these are not fine crystal. This should not have happened after one wash.

This will happen to any glass that has the decal type design on them. Years ago the design was etched on and they could withstand the dishwasher. Not so with the cost reduced decal designs.

Laura

 

[DisneyJen]

Just a quick update from the Festival regarding the Premium Areas. The areas now have a couple of places to sit and umbrellas for shade. For example in Canada there are two picnic tables and a stand-up table.