ImprovGal
<font color=green>No animals were harmed in the ma
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2004
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(or, Fifteen Days Of the Epcot Food And Wine Festival Without a Carey In the World)
Forgive me. Overexposure has desensitized me to food porn. So I decided to call my review Food Burlesque. Perhaps Festival Host Pam Smith might call it, "Porn -- with a differrence."
First -- the rating system. I'll warn you right now that I'm swiping someone else's rating system, that of the Motion Picture Association of America. Ratings go from 'G' for the least impressive of tastes up to 'X' for something so tempting I'd rather have a bit of privacy to enjoy it.
Every year I look forward to the Food & Wine Festival. Despite a management shakeup some months ago, this year is no exception and I booked 3 separate trips during the Festival to experience a variety of different chefs and events.
That's it for the exposition. I really should have written more of a preamble ahead of time. When I return home, I shall write 100 times, "Next time, I will write a proper pre-trip review at least a few days in advance."
9/25/09
The Festival starts!
My day got off to a bit of a late start due to a late arrival the night before and an immediate resort change this morning. It was after 11:30 and kiosk lines had already started to form by the time I entered through the International Gateway.
I started with the cheese plate from Cork.
It's basically the same as in prior years, and quite enjoyable.
I should have paid more attention to which cheese was which, but I can tell you that I preferred the apple chutney paired with the wedge sitting on top. The combination was balanced and interesting enough for me to rate this a PG-13. I will need to return to this cheese plate later because gravity is a harsh mistress that brought down my generous slice of brown bread through the slats of the Off-Kilter bench before I could try it.
My next stop was Santiago. It was rather hot and the sun was quite strong so I made cooler, lighter items the plan for this weekend. It was time for a rock shrimp ceviche.
I love the popcorn garnish! I positioned my cup atop a trash can to take the picture and a passerby warned me it was hot. I foolishly thought he was referring to the trash can. The ceviche portion was on the small side with 4 tiny shrimp marinating in a very tasty gazpacho that had a really nice heat to it. I love spicy food (just ask the bottle of sriracha I keep in my desk at work) and I didn't expect a kiosk item to have this much heat. The popcorn sitting on top didn't overpower the item. I only hope they don't get complaints about the heat factor and end up toning it down as the festival progresses. I thought the ceviche had great flavor and was spicier than late night Cinemax so I give this item a strong R.
My taste buds decided they wanted to cool off a bit, so I stopped by Rio De Janiero for a rather unphotogenic frozen Caipirinha.
The drink was too syrupy sweet to really be refreshing for me. I thought the lime flavor was way too understated and it can't be burlesque without a little tart in it. I give it barely a PG even though you need to be 21 to drink it.
My final stop before I continued on to the Festival Center was Mexico City. The promise of purple onions drew me to opt for the shredded pork taco even though I usually avoid red meat.
The purple onions were nicely pickled, but the pork was a bit bland and the tortilla was your basic prepackaged flour tortilla. I'd hoped for more of a spiciness in the pork. It was a solid PG item for me.
I moved on to the Festival Center for the first culinary demonstration of the festival -- Douglas Rodriguez from OLA in Miami, FL. His demonstration was for Sugarcane Tuna with Malanga Puree (and a shrimp salsa bonus, too).
The addition of sherry vinegar and ketchup to the shrimp salsa provided a tangy sweetness that was a nice counterpoint to the adobo seasoned tuna. As you can see in the picture, my piece of tuna had a very light sear on it. I like my tuna rare to swimming so I enjoyed it. The sugar cane speared through it infused just a couch of sweetness into the tuna. Malanga is Spanish for taro, and the addition of goat cheese and garlic to the mash gave it a vast improvement over a poi preparation. I thought this dish was R-worthy.
The next culinary demonstration was Andy Pforzheimer & Adam Greenberg from the Barcelona Restaurant Group preparing Herbed Goat Cheese & Wild Mushroom Montaditos. I'm really the wrong person to be reviewing this item. I have a strong food aversion to mushrooms. I keep trying them, hoping my taste buds have changed, wanting to like them, but GAK. Can't do it. I decided I wanted to see the demonstration anyway and really can't pass up goat cheese.
Isn't it lovely? Others have posted about this demo and its glitches. The item was not prepared to the chef's specifications; when he noticed it hadn't been heated to melt the herbed goat cheese, he became quite irritated. I didn't mind, though. It made it easier to remove the goat cheese to eat with the olive oil toasted crostini and pass my mushrooms to my tablemate for her to enjoy. The goat cheese -- PG-13. The mushrooms -- NR.
After the demo, I made a quick stop at the Tokyo kiosk before leaving the park. I selected the Tuna Sensation.
Isn't it cute? I can only assume that the portion size is a tribute to Japanese advances in nanotechnology. Oh, it tasted fine. The tuna was fresh and good. The avocado was ripe yet firm. The soy sesame marinade was delicious. However, at $5.75 it seemed to be a strong contender for the most overpriced item of the festival. The spicy tuna roll seemed to have almost as much tuna in it for nearly 1/2 the price. I'm rating it Johnny Dangerously -- IMAX edition. Sure, it's a good PG-13 movie, but do you really need to pay double to see it in IMAX?
Dinner plans were for Kouzzina by Cat Cora. I don't know if it can be attributed to newly opened restaurant awkwardness but service left quite a bit to be desired. My party checked in on time but ended up with a 40 minute wait to be seated. Our server made no attempt to make up for lost time either. So you can fully appreciate how long we waited before actually getting our food, I'm going to leave this review to be continued and make you wait until tomorrow.
Forgive me. Overexposure has desensitized me to food porn. So I decided to call my review Food Burlesque. Perhaps Festival Host Pam Smith might call it, "Porn -- with a differrence."
First -- the rating system. I'll warn you right now that I'm swiping someone else's rating system, that of the Motion Picture Association of America. Ratings go from 'G' for the least impressive of tastes up to 'X' for something so tempting I'd rather have a bit of privacy to enjoy it.
Every year I look forward to the Food & Wine Festival. Despite a management shakeup some months ago, this year is no exception and I booked 3 separate trips during the Festival to experience a variety of different chefs and events.
That's it for the exposition. I really should have written more of a preamble ahead of time. When I return home, I shall write 100 times, "Next time, I will write a proper pre-trip review at least a few days in advance."
9/25/09
The Festival starts!
My day got off to a bit of a late start due to a late arrival the night before and an immediate resort change this morning. It was after 11:30 and kiosk lines had already started to form by the time I entered through the International Gateway.
I started with the cheese plate from Cork.
It's basically the same as in prior years, and quite enjoyable.
I should have paid more attention to which cheese was which, but I can tell you that I preferred the apple chutney paired with the wedge sitting on top. The combination was balanced and interesting enough for me to rate this a PG-13. I will need to return to this cheese plate later because gravity is a harsh mistress that brought down my generous slice of brown bread through the slats of the Off-Kilter bench before I could try it.
My next stop was Santiago. It was rather hot and the sun was quite strong so I made cooler, lighter items the plan for this weekend. It was time for a rock shrimp ceviche.
I love the popcorn garnish! I positioned my cup atop a trash can to take the picture and a passerby warned me it was hot. I foolishly thought he was referring to the trash can. The ceviche portion was on the small side with 4 tiny shrimp marinating in a very tasty gazpacho that had a really nice heat to it. I love spicy food (just ask the bottle of sriracha I keep in my desk at work) and I didn't expect a kiosk item to have this much heat. The popcorn sitting on top didn't overpower the item. I only hope they don't get complaints about the heat factor and end up toning it down as the festival progresses. I thought the ceviche had great flavor and was spicier than late night Cinemax so I give this item a strong R.
My taste buds decided they wanted to cool off a bit, so I stopped by Rio De Janiero for a rather unphotogenic frozen Caipirinha.
The drink was too syrupy sweet to really be refreshing for me. I thought the lime flavor was way too understated and it can't be burlesque without a little tart in it. I give it barely a PG even though you need to be 21 to drink it.
My final stop before I continued on to the Festival Center was Mexico City. The promise of purple onions drew me to opt for the shredded pork taco even though I usually avoid red meat.
The purple onions were nicely pickled, but the pork was a bit bland and the tortilla was your basic prepackaged flour tortilla. I'd hoped for more of a spiciness in the pork. It was a solid PG item for me.
I moved on to the Festival Center for the first culinary demonstration of the festival -- Douglas Rodriguez from OLA in Miami, FL. His demonstration was for Sugarcane Tuna with Malanga Puree (and a shrimp salsa bonus, too).
The addition of sherry vinegar and ketchup to the shrimp salsa provided a tangy sweetness that was a nice counterpoint to the adobo seasoned tuna. As you can see in the picture, my piece of tuna had a very light sear on it. I like my tuna rare to swimming so I enjoyed it. The sugar cane speared through it infused just a couch of sweetness into the tuna. Malanga is Spanish for taro, and the addition of goat cheese and garlic to the mash gave it a vast improvement over a poi preparation. I thought this dish was R-worthy.
The next culinary demonstration was Andy Pforzheimer & Adam Greenberg from the Barcelona Restaurant Group preparing Herbed Goat Cheese & Wild Mushroom Montaditos. I'm really the wrong person to be reviewing this item. I have a strong food aversion to mushrooms. I keep trying them, hoping my taste buds have changed, wanting to like them, but GAK. Can't do it. I decided I wanted to see the demonstration anyway and really can't pass up goat cheese.
Isn't it lovely? Others have posted about this demo and its glitches. The item was not prepared to the chef's specifications; when he noticed it hadn't been heated to melt the herbed goat cheese, he became quite irritated. I didn't mind, though. It made it easier to remove the goat cheese to eat with the olive oil toasted crostini and pass my mushrooms to my tablemate for her to enjoy. The goat cheese -- PG-13. The mushrooms -- NR.
After the demo, I made a quick stop at the Tokyo kiosk before leaving the park. I selected the Tuna Sensation.
Isn't it cute? I can only assume that the portion size is a tribute to Japanese advances in nanotechnology. Oh, it tasted fine. The tuna was fresh and good. The avocado was ripe yet firm. The soy sesame marinade was delicious. However, at $5.75 it seemed to be a strong contender for the most overpriced item of the festival. The spicy tuna roll seemed to have almost as much tuna in it for nearly 1/2 the price. I'm rating it Johnny Dangerously -- IMAX edition. Sure, it's a good PG-13 movie, but do you really need to pay double to see it in IMAX?
Dinner plans were for Kouzzina by Cat Cora. I don't know if it can be attributed to newly opened restaurant awkwardness but service left quite a bit to be desired. My party checked in on time but ended up with a 40 minute wait to be seated. Our server made no attempt to make up for lost time either. So you can fully appreciate how long we waited before actually getting our food, I'm going to leave this review to be continued and make you wait until tomorrow.
