Welcome back to cold Tuesday. Before I get into the Food & Wine Pairing at Restaurant Marrakesh, I must confess something to you...I was not looking forward to this at all. I'd looked at the restaurant menu often enough during the never-ending planning stages of our pre-vacation to know that there was precious little on the menu that I would or could eat. BUT, I can be thoughtful sometimes (really, I can!), and I knew that my parents and my hubby would enjoy giving this a try. So, as I stated earlier, I took one for the team!
For those of you who have never been to Restaurant Marrakesh it is tucked way back in a little alley in the Morocco section of Epcot. It really did feel like we were winding our way around some ancient marketplace and then when we found it - wow! It's actually a pretty cool looking restaurant.
Check it out:
The guy doing most of the talking, 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.
Yes, sadly for Restaurant Marrakesh, we had experienced the gold standard of Food and Wine Pairings at Coral Reef last week and they were already falling short. There was no separate waiting area, so we were all crowded together in the restaurant lobby. 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...for three courses? Yucko!!
Some people didn't even have water and had to ask repeatedly for it (or in my case for refills). I was already disappointed and I hadn't even tasted anything yet.
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 for more disappointment...no dessert?!?!?!?
Bah! 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. As for the wines, all I know is a name and a region - no information about a specific winery 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 also says this was 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!
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 the 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.
I'd prefer France or Italy or even Canada. So I guess you guys know where we'll be heading when we go back to the F&W Festival some time in the not too clear future.
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 night of trick or treating around the Magic Kingdom.
Don't Jason and I look cute?
I know that this picture really has nothing to do with food, but we were dressed up in the hopes of getting some food, so surely that counts in a rather obscure way, doesn't it?
I did eat dinner at the MK - I used a counter service credit at Casey's on Main Street. Best hot dogs ever! But I shocked the CM behind the counter when I declined dessert (I bet you guys are shocked, too, after reading my whiny commentary about the lack of dessert at our F&W pairing). When the choice is a box of cracker jacks or something pretending to be a brownie, I'll pass, thanks anyway. I had my dog and my cheese fries and I could feel my arteries clogging - what more did I need?
Besides, later than night while we were freezing our mouse ears off before Hallowishes Jason, Jon, and I went back to the Main Street Bakery and used a bunch of snack credits to get some cafe mochas and some yummy chocolate bundt cakes. And I failed to take pictures of any of it.
But I do have one last picture to share from the evening:
Plankton pulled in quite a haul - and look at that! He's wearing mouse ears! He's really starting to get into this "Happiest Place on Earth" thing. Wow.
That's it for today. Wednesday will bring a character breakfast at Cape May Cafe, late lunch at Beaches and Cream, a cancelled dinner reservation at Blue Zoo (still kicking myself over that one) and dinner around the world showcase - we're not done eating the world yet!
Thanks for reading!!
....pass my "HI's" to HP - please.
It sounds nasty!
What do they put in the water in OFallon, Missouri cause I gotta get me some! 
