Belated Gastronomy! January 2008!

[tinagirl]

As I've begun planning our trip for early January of '09, I realized that I had TONS of photos of Disney food from January of this year that I had never posted. Combine that with a good friend who is interested in seeing what our dining experiences were in the past, and I decided to dip my toe in the proverbial dining review oasis.

We were in Disney World in January of 08 for the Half Marathon, but I unfortunately was nowhere near as trained as I needed to be, and decided to opt out and plan for 09 (which is why we're going back). We didn't want to shed the trip, though, so we just had a good time!

Players:
Jason (Dear Boyfriend), sometimes called Jay, sometimes called Sweet Prince, sometimes called most annoying man on earth. (often all at once) He's happy if food includes red meat in any given form.
Tina (me), tomboy and tentative foodie who LOVES a good soup.

Review #1: Cantina de San Angel (counter service) EPCOT
-We arrived at EPCOT close to 8pm, after flying from Los Angeles to MCO, and a rather long flight delay. We took the Express (which is GREAT) direct to Pop Century and checked in, and quickly hopped the bus to visit the park.

Since we were both pretty beat, we decided to just get counter service at Cantina and watch Illuminations, so we split an order of the Cantina Nachos, and the Bunuelos, along with some beverages.

Cantina Nachos:

It may have been the fact that we hadn't eaten for 17 hours, but these were actually really really tasty. Of course, they weren't really "home made" nachos, as we are used to from hole in the wall places that are near our home in L.A., but they were like excellent movie theater nachos, complete with flourescent processed cheese food!

Our biggest complaint was that they went really light on the cheese, so we actually went back and got a separate side after this, fortunately, the CM did not charge us extra.

Bunuelos:

We were REALLY disappointed by this. Now, first of all, I should tell you that I do actually love foods by the Bimbo Bread company. We get them all the time at the local 7-Eleven...
That being said, we thought we were getting a real bunelo, which is sort of like a puffed donut coated in cinnamon and sugar... warm and tasty.

So instead, we got these Bimbo Bunuelos, and once I got over the initial disappointment, I said, Oh well, these are good too, and opened them up. Unfortunately, they were completely stale and rock hard. I'm not sure if they were past their prime, or if trekking these tasty snacks from the west coast just takes a toll, but I strongly suggest avoiding these if possible.

Total Score: 3/5

Stay tuned for much better experiences at Le Cellier, Boma, and a death defying fight with a Boardwalk Seagull.

 

[averill94]

Those nachos look pretty darned good!

Looking forward to more!

 

[iluvpluto27]

Great start. Looking forward to more.

 

[tinagirl]

On our second day, we were a little jet lagged, so we wanted a quick in-room breakfast for speed. I jogged down to the pop food court while Jay was in the shower and got us some tasty treats:

When I brought the food back, I told Jay that he had his choice of Chocolate Chip Croissant or Cheese Danish (knowing secretly that I'd be happy with either... the best way to share).
He took the Danish, and I got the Croissant and the corn flakes. He paired his pastry with ice cold coke. Mmm... Nothing like a good sugar rush to get the most out of your snacking.

Jay said that the danish was really good, and we both agree that there is just something about Disney Property coke.

It doesn't taste like this at any fast food eatery or from a can or from a bottle. We don't know if Disney fountain soda goes heavy on the syrup, or they may put some sort of pixie dust in it.

My croissant was tasty. I warmed it up a bit, and wasn't disappointed.

We hit the Magic Kingdom, but wanted to hit the attractions, so we decided a counter service lunch at Casey's was in order.

The beacon of hot dog goodness:

We grabbed two all beef hot dogs and two orders of fries, along with more of that Disney World Fountain Coke.

The parade was passing by, (*Ah man, now I've got the music of Hello Dolly in my head*), so people were jostling about and it was hard to take pictures. Rest assured that this Casey's hot dog was tasty, hot, snappy when you bite into it, and just salty enough.

One thing of note, is that the ducks really do seem more aggressive this year than in years past. This was not a good year for me with the Disney Water Foul... Maybe Donald Duck tipped them off that I said I preferred Goofy. They pecked at me a bit, but being blunt billed, no real harm was done.

We headed over and stopped at Monster's Inc Laugh Floor for the first time, and I must say... If they packaged any of these products and sold them in the "human world" I would be tempted to try a can of Blort:

After hitting most of Tomorrowland, we swung around to Auntie Gravities, a small ice cream location around the corner from Cosmic Rays.

I got a hot fudge Sundae with a bottle of water, and Jay got a coke float.

It was surprisingly hot that day, so this was an excellent snack.

We were getting pretty worn, so we decided to head back to Pop Century, and just have dinner in the food court, but then as we were headed out, Jason realized that he couldn't pass up this opportunity for a funnel cake.

Sorry for the very bright image.
For those who are may not know, a funnel cake is essentially a donut-style batter that is slowly drizzled into hot oil, to fry. When the appropriate size is reached, they pull out the hot, crispy goodness and top it off with powdered sugar and a fruit topping if you so desire.

We are spoiled on the fruit toppings, because of the boysenberry topping you can get at Knott's Berry Farm in Southern California, but the funnel cakes with just the powdered sugar was tasty (especially with the high levels of sugar we had already consumed that day). SOOO GOOD!

Soon after, we got back to Pop, and... ate some more!
Jay got the pepperoni Pizza:

and I got the chicken strips and fries:

Jay loves Disney World Pizza, because the crust tastes sort-of buttery, but this time, it didn't have the same flavor. It was still good, but not as good as he remembered. I was secretly wondering if it was due to them removing trans-fats from some of their foods, and wanted to test that theory with another pizza later in the week, but we just didn't have time. We'll have to investigate further next year. (We suffer in the name of science).

I love Disney World Chicken strips, which are really just frozen chicken strips, but double fried so that they are super crispy. I know that there are other more exotic options at the pop food court, but we were happy with the choices. As you may see from the photo, we took it back to our room... Food tastes better when watching tv. ;p

Next Up: Why something named "Yak" can be surprisingly tasty!

 

[butiflfeet]

Those nachos look pretty yummy to me! I love that glowing orange cheese stuff.
Can't wait to see more pics

 

[MickeyNicki]

Ok Im in!

 

[kbmaggs]

Bring it ON!

 

[devonsmommy]

Great reviews so far!

 

[John's Mom]

Great start!

 

[World Bouncer]

Thanks for sharing!
The reviews and pics are great!

 

[TigerKat]

Jumping right in for "Yak"!!

 

[kimgof]

subbing

 

[tinagirl]

Our third day was Animal Kingdom. We knew that we wanted to hit the park early, before the animals got all sleepy, and we also wanted to park hop over to Epcot later in the day. I had a rerun of the Pop Century Croissant (because it was so tasty) but Jay wasn't in the mood for Breakfast food.

When we got to the park, we hit the Safaris, and then decided that a nice ride back in time was our next target, so we headed over to Dinosaur.

After the walk over, my dear sweet prince realized he had the munchies, and in consideration of our Ride-a-holic agenda, he just grabbed the nearest thing to us, which ended up being some McDonalds "Petrifries".

I haven't had McDonalds in over 2 years, and I didn't try his fries, but they were gone in about 4 minutes, so I'm guessing they filled him up.

More rides, some games, and a walk past the fastpass for Everest later, and we arrived, for the first time at Yak & Yeti. We checked out the table service, but there was actually a 30 minute wait, and this was definitely our "no wait" day, so we hit up the counter service next door.
The exterior is really pretty nice:

(My apologies to the random people whose souls were captured in my willy-nilly pointed photography)...

So we decided to split the Crisp Honey Chicken and the Pork Egg Roll.

Overall, this was good, but not quite our "thing". There wasn't much sauce, which would have been ok, if they were just a little more crunchy, but the pieces were so big, and the breading was so loose, that it just fell off the chicken when you took a bite... leaving you nothing but naked bird.

The chicken itself was good quality meat, and the flavor of the sauce was really good. I think we just sucked out and need to request "extra crispy crisp chicken" next time.

The pork egg rolls were HUGE! And chock full of veggies, black pepper, and ground pork. For me, these were AWESOME! Also, these monster things go for 1 snack credit, so I had every intention of returning for them later in the week when we switched on to the DDP....
For me, this was the tastiest part of the Yak experience.

I really liked these, and we'll definitely get them again. Even Jay who doesn't really feel the porcine love liked them. Thumbs up on these babies.
And if you wonder about the size of the portions, here is a comparison shot of my sweet prince inhaling his food... as you can see the carton is roughly the size of his face...:

So after the Americ-Asian chow down feast, we decided to ride Everest... which perhaps was not the best plan. It resulted in us sitting very still on a stone step for the next 20 minutes or so, before Bussing it back to Epcot for Dinner.

Le Cellier:
After we rode the new Spaceship Earth (SoOOOOO COOL), and finding out about our unique future, we wandered through shops and world showcase until it came time for our 7:15 ADR at Le Cellier. Jay's only request every year is to go to Le Cellier, as we've NEVER had a bad meal here. Some are better than others, but it's always been good.

We cruised in 10 minutes early and sat on the carved wooden bench for a really short time- only about 10 minutes! That means that we were at our table right at the ADR time, something that had NEVER before happened to us at Le Cellier.

We knew that this was off to a good start.

Our waiter brought the breads of Canada, and I meant to take a photo, however the bread was devoured before I could get to it.

We ordered some soup:

Jay got the fantastic Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup:

and I tried the special, which was Beef with Barley:

Jay's soup was great, as always, and I was instantly jealous. I started to eat my soup, which was actually pretty tasty, but I now realize the error of my ways, and will never again detour from my pristine relationship with Cheddar soup. I had only gone for the brothy soup because we had decided to also split an appetizer of the Spicy Chicken and Chipotle Sausage with Polenta.

Ok - So I know that Chipotle Sausage and Polenta is not the most Canadian of choices. It really is more of a Mesa/Southwest flavor combination. That being said. IT WAS FANTASTIC! Oh my goodness! The sausage was just spicy enough, and the polenta was super creamy and sweet.

I don't know if you've had polenta before, but it's a corn batter than can either be served at a mashed potato consistency, or fried/baked into a cake. The issue, is that since corn kernels don't really break down easily, you can end up with a gritty or grainy texture. NOT HERE!

I wish I could eat one now, and every day for the rest of my life. This year, I'm asking for the recipe for this.

If you are a fan of salty/spicy/sweet/savory all in one dish... then egads you should give this a try!

Ok - Now on to the main course:
Jason and I both had a BBQ fillet with mashed potatoes, which brings me to my inner terror. I saw that over on the Dis, the BBQ filet has been driven off the menu, and only the mushroom fillet remains. I'm going to rely on the Dis reviews to let me know if I should give up on the fillet here, or at least warn him of the loss of his favorite fare...

And for Dessert?
I got the Chocolate Whiskey Cake and ice wine:

and Jay got the apple cobbler

Darn it! Again, I ended up jealous of him, that was, until I took a swig of the ice wine while I still had the cake in my mouth. Holy Hell! The sweet desert wine with the somewhat dry cake was GREAT!



Next:
When poultry eats your ice cream...

 

[Disney owl]

great reviews & photos

 

[TigerKat]

Great reviews! Those eggrolls look really good, going to get some of those bad boys in November!