Am I Up to the Challenge of the 2014 F&WF? Bring on the Food!

[MICKEY'S DREAMERS]

....using our MickeyBand to open the door, I can say that I was happily surprised, if not thoroughly impressed. This is the view we encountered upon entering the room. I can assure you, we never grew tired of that view! I also noted how lovely the new linens look. I wasn't particularly fond of those multi-colored bedspreads and I think that the lighter bedsheets and coverings give the room a lighter airiness to them:

[/QUOTE]

AWWW I so love the new bedsheets and coverings !!
What a view from your room !! You lucky you !!

 

[kimmar067]

Sorry about your non-walk from DHS to the YC. I love that pathway!

Loving all the pics, too!

.

....well, me too....at a more leisurely pace....

 

[LegoMom3]

BTW, how was the shower in your room?? In the DVC room I was in last May, the thing about took your skin off!! I like good water pressure but that one was almost painful......


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[kimmar067]

"...a Regular Anthony Bourdain, I am...."

....we by-passed the Refreshment Port [I don't even remember seeing it...] and headed directly to Greece. The sound of griddled cheese was totally intriguing - if you ever have to chance to try some - DO! One of the best samples we'd eaten, hands down! It had the perfect melding of sweet (from the honey) and savory (from the salt of the cheese). Of course, we mosied on over to Canada by this point and purchased the wild mushroom beef filet mignon with truffle butter - OMG, to die for! ....we continued on and stopped to watch the lumberjacks in action - I think the sound of the power tools did my DH in...men and their power tools - I guess it's akin to women and the nearest DSW shoe store...

At the Ireland kiosk, we sampled the fisherman's pie and the Bunratty Meade Honey Wind and by the time we'd reach England [I noted to the rest of the crew that we'd be eating here at Rose & Crown later that day] we paused only to catch a glimpse of a few of England's notable 'countrymen', although they ARE fictional:

....we only stayed long enough in France to enjoy [and boy, do I mean 'ENJOY'!] the Grand Marnier Orange Slushes and the shenanigans of these two fellows:

....moving along, we excitedly arrived at Brazil - again, not a kiosk to be missed! We thoroughly enjoyed the Brazilian Pork Belly with black beans, accompanied with the Frozen Caipirinho. As you may have already guessed, we tended to gravitate towards the 'frozen/shushie" type beverages, since the day grew increasingly hotter as the height of the afternoon sun was upon us. We finally called it a 'day' at Poland, where we sampled the pierogi and kielbasa, before deciding to head back to the Welcome Center for the deminar...it was here that we thought it prudent to wait for the ferry back to the other side of the lake...

 

[PrincessInOz]

You really hit a few of my favourite blissful bites at F&W. The mushroom fillet at Canada is sooo good.

I like the frozen slushie drinks too. Now you're making me crave one.

 

[kimmar067]

You really hit a few of my favourite blissful bites at F&W. The mushroom fillet at Canada is sooo good.

I like the frozen slushie drinks too. Now you're making me crave one....

not. my. problem.

 

[kimmar067]

You really hit a few of my favourite blissful bites at F&W. The mushroom fillet at Canada is sooo good...

...yeah....TOTALLY! If we didn't have the deminar to attend,we definitely would have gone back to Canada for more....

 

[kimmar067]

"...This is the Part We Call the Probervial 'Monkeywrench in the Works', or, 'It's All Downhill From Here'..."

....Jean thought it best to take a short-cut of sorts, through Millennium Village (also known as World Showplace), home of Craft Beers. Traditionally, we are not 'beer people", mostly because I am not necessarily fond of the taste of beer [ just doesn't do anything for me] and most beer isn't GF (...well, the good ones aren't). So, we wouldn't be side-tracked by any of the hypnotic flavors that were offered here - or so we thought....

...we'd gone into one door, walked straight through, only stopping long enough to get my passport stamped, and continued out the opposite door. Funny thing happened on the way out - no Ron. I yelled ahead to Jean that somewhere inside we lost my DH, so we turned around and went back inside to look for him. There he was, standing near the other door, apparently deep in conversation on his cellphone. My oldest DS was the other participant of this very serious conversation and he'd been regaling him with all the dirty details about the 'pending Halloween party that was to take place at our house the next night, compliments of my youngest DS', complete with about 40 to 50 revelers. I think it fair to point out that Facebook can be our best friend or our worst enemy - in our case, it was a little of both. It seems that Todd was surfing Facebook when a little ditty caught his eye, so he decided to investigate it, calling one of the 'authors' of that post (who turned out to be one of my youngest DS's friends). Everything seemed too suspicious, so he decided to (rightfully so) enlighten my DH to let him know of these recent turn of events. Of course, my DH only needs the slightest of reasons NOT to enjoy all that WDW has to offer, and suddenly we wants to head to MCO and board the first flight back to New Jersey. Needless-to-say, this put quite a damper on the rest of our trip; at this point, he called my other DS, Jesse, the 'voice of reason' to do some sleuthing of his own and try to get to the bottom of the situation at hand.....turns out, our trip would be punctuated with these phone calls throughout the next two days, almost shredding whatever bit of happiness or gaiety we could muster. For goodness sake, we are at Walt Disneyworld - the place of 'eternal happiness'....

As we walked to the Welcome Center, Ron recapped all that had happened, with the rest of us incredulous at this point, trying to figure out a viable solution for a 'happy ending', all the while Jean assuring Ron not to worry, everything will work out. He seemed to be appeased (well, either that or he just put forth his best face so as not to bring us down too)...We arrived at the designated area and soon were seated, left of the 'stage area'. I can only speak of this particular seminar since we don't have anything to compare it to. I must say that it was both entertaining and enlightening and well worth the $15/person. We were the happy recipients of a generous 'sample' of the event's featured meal, pheasant with apples and mushrooms, prepared by Chef Jerome Brown, paired with a delightful New Zealand pinot noir:

Afterwards, we received a copy of the recipe and were given the opportunity to have it autographed by chef.....Maureen and I did so but we only stayed long enough to check out the assortment of wines and products offered for sale at the Festival Wine Shop - unfortunately, we declined on making any purchases....

 

[kimmar067]

"Patagonia? Patagonia? You're Kidding Me, Right?..."

...we forged on, this time tackling the western side of the lagoon; Maureen had heard rave reviews of the offerings of Farm Fresh and was eager to try it out of herself. As for me, well, that pheasant did me in, but I wasn't going to be a wet blanket so that was our next destination. I wandered off to the left, and came upon a kiosk called 'Patagonia'.....okay, now they're just making up names. I marched right up to the booth and asked its occupants where on God's Green Earth this place was - all the while, I was thinking that perhaps it was an Eastern Bloc country. The answer I got was that Patagonia is a sparsely populated region located at the southern end of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile.....I still think it's a made-up place, but that's just me....

....nothing at Farm Fresh seemed to pique my interest; however my DH and I were curious about New Zealand's offering of Venison Sausage - quite tasty and quite satisfying, although I could have gone without the pickled mushrooms. Maureen settled on the Pepper Bacon Hash with Sweet Corn and Potatoes; she gave it a 'thumbs up'. I would have liked to have tried the Key Lime Wine, but it wasn't to be....

....the over-indulgence of the wide variety of foods which we had, by now consumed, was starting to get the best of us - mentally, I had compared it to a marathon. We simply had to pace ourselves, but even with that premise, my stomach was quickly running out of room, so, by the time we reached China, I couldn't even look at Jean's Beijing Roasted Duck. In all fairness, it DID smell quite aromatic and looked divine. I surmise that the lesson to be learned here is to do the Food & Wine Festival as a 2-day event, splitting the lagoon into halves - one side for each day.

We journeyed on, barely even stopping at the various kiosks - I'd even lost interest in securing any more passport stamps by now. We finally reached....

 

[PrincessInOz]

Your youngest DS was only upholding what is the common practise of Party when Parents are Out of Town. I hope that there was no serious damage done?







Nice deminar. Looks like you had a great time with the food. And yes; where the stomach is concerned, I think you've hit on the right note. At least 2 days for F&W is needed.

 

[franandaj]

....is there a way to upload it to YouTube?

Yes! There is! If you have a YouTube account and have the app installed on your phone it's easy. I totally forgot that I have done that with some larger videos that I took with my phone.

 

[franandaj]

I completely understand getting full at F&W. We get just about everything at each booth. After about 3-4 booths we start to get full and need to go on a long slow ride like American Adventure. When we did F&W and hit every booth, we ate for six days and that was with one ADR per day.

The last time we didn't hit every booth because we had too many special events and parties with friends. It is completely a matter of pacing.

Silly DS! Doesn't he know that the parents always find out and with Facebook nothing is a secret.

Glad you enjoyed the deminar. I have yet to do one at WDW.

 

[LegoMom3]

..............
We journeyed on, barely even stopping at the various kiosks - I'd even lost interest in securing any more passport stamps by now. We finally reached....

What?!?......reached WHAT???!

.

 

[kimmar067]

....oh mah gawd....

 

[kimmar067]

"....Royyyyt....Well Then, Tally-ho, Pip-pip, and all that....."

....the American Adventure to catch one of the sets of Dennis DeYoung [of Styx fame] but instead opted to visit the Chase lounge located upstairs [truth be told, we were pretty much unimpressed with his song choices, not to mention the fact that the set was way too short ...so disappointing, since we thoroughly loved the Turtles at last year's Flower & Garden Festival]:

It was a much-welcomed respite; we took complete advantage of the free coke machines, all the while with me playing mad-scientist with the limitless blending of the various myriad of flavors. My personal choice was the vanilla/peach Coke. We departed to the seating area and waited while our cellphones were recharging at the Recharging Station. We conversed with two young adults who were visiting the WDW area because of an upcoming wedding that they would be attending the next day at the Grand Floridian Wedding Pavilion. Realizing that it was later than we thought, we hurriedly retrieved our phones and made way for 'jolly ol England', specifically Rose and Crown. We checked in at the podium, received one of those beepers since our table was not yet ready. Of course, that was perfectly fine with me, since I had concocted a sinister plot to take my time ordering our food, giving us time to leisurely enjoy an evening spectacular, otherwise known as Illuminations stateside. It turned out that our wait was longer than expected, so we weren't actually seated until almost 7:45....

Unsure of what to expect, this particular eatery was a first for both my DH and me, but I had a hankering for......for.......for bubbles and squeak....nope....bangers and mash....nay, nay - wrong again. It was the fish and chips that were calling to me:

....the wait staff were oh-so-proper - really quite lovely and dinner, while not THE BEST meal I've ever eaten, was definitely at least a 4 on a scale of 1 to 5....of course, my dessert of Warm Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding more than made up for any shortcomings of the evening's dinner...by the time Illuminataions had ended, we were finishing the last of our coffees. In fact, the inside dining room was completely empty and there were some last-minute stragglers about. We had to get going, heading for Futureworld to catch the bus back to AKL. We did get to pass through what I was thinking was Party for the Senses. It was set up in the Canada, with these really cool blue-lit tables strewn about, and light-up glasses that kept changing colors. I must say that I was a bit envious - it was growing to be quite a party atmosphere, complete with club music pulsing in the background, building in crescendo as we walked around the lagoon....what an excellent time at F&WF - I hope to return again....

[next post - Page 6 ~ Post #84]​

 

[PrincessInOz]

What a great table at the Rose and Crown. (and that picture of you and DH ain't half-bad either).


The fish and chips is calling my name too. I wonder what DH would say if I suggested that for dinner tonight?


So......are you planning a return trip to F&W next year?

 

[kimmar067]

.....we had another table, but it wasn't to Jean's liking. He made quite a stink about it and we wound up being seated there....it was a little embarrassing, especially since they made every effort to seat us ahead of other guests.....

 

[tiggrbaby]

We've eaten at R&C for the Illuminations viewing 3x. It is a very nice way to do it! Last time they didn't have shepherds pie on the menu, which was always my fav. We also enjoyed the scotch egg and sticky toffee pudding.

 

[franandaj]

We haven't been to Rose & Crown since they refused to give us a better table, even when we made a stink. It used to be our "kick off the trip" restaurant. But after that Tim we havent been back. We have a number of nice pubs near home where I can get bangers and mash or shepherds pie.

I'm glad you enjoyed you meal there. The Chase lounge sounds interesting. Do you just need a Chase Visa to get in there?

 

[kimmar067]

We've eaten at R&C for the Illuminations viewing 3x. It is a very nice way to do it! Last time they didn't have shepherds pie on the menu, which was always my fav.....

...that's what Jean-Pierre ordered.....looked really delicious too!