Ok, so I post on another forum, and I posted this when I got back from F&W. I'm just going to copy it over...hopefully it helps some!!
----------------
On Thursday and Saturday (October 2 & 4) my best friend & I spent the afternoons walking through Epcot's Food & Wine Festival. On Thursday my Mom joined us as she picked us up from the airport and on Saturday my brother, Dad & Mom joined us as they all live in the area. Since this portion is more about the food than anything else, I'll stick to just the food reviews
Hope you've got a snack, otherwise you'll wind up being hungry!!!
And off we go!! (In no particular order, because we did skip some booths and then come back to them, plus did some on Thursday, then did some on Saturday...did some both days
YUM!!)
Santiago, Chile: My friend tried the Spicy Beef Empanada, which was good. Worth getting. And we split the Classic Series Chardonnay. The Chardonnay was one of our favorites of the festival. VERY good!
The Mouse Catch: Assorted Cheeses...Dorothea, Holland; Asiago Pressato, Italy; Manchego, Spain. The Dorthea was a Goat cheese and was my friend's favorite while the Asiago was a cow cheese and was my favorite. The Manchego was a sheep's cheese and while it was neither of our favorites, was also very good. Another member of our party had the wine that paired with the sheep's cheese and said it paired really well and really enhanced it. It was red though, and I can't drink red wines, so I'll have to take his word on it
Shanghai, China: My friend tried the Chicken Sha Cha which was chicken on a skewer. She thought it was good, but nothing special. Also had the chardonnay here (you'll sense a pattern.) The chardonnay was alright. But the Chilean one we had just tried and blew it out of the water.
Side note: I could barely walk by the Indian booth without my stomach flip flopping, so we obviously didn't try any of that
Very heavy on the curry!!
Melbourne, Australia: My brother, my friend, & I tried the wattleseed mousse here. What's wattleseed you ask? THat's an excellent question, we googled it from my friend's blackberry after trying it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wattleseed I was the only one who REALLY liked this dessert. My friend & brother thought it was okay. I thought it was delicious. Now, it tastes like coffee and I love tirimisu and coffee ice cream, etc. LOVE IT. So perhaps that's why I thought it was delicious
Also in Australia we hit up the wine bar. My friend got the Greg Norman Chardonnay and I got the Estates Alliance White Wine. We really liked the Alliance. The Chardonnay was pretty good.
Munich, Germany: YUMMY! I LOVE GERMAN FOOD! Ok. Now that we have that out of the way...I tried everything here. The spaetzle, the sausage on the pretzel roll, and the strudel. My friend (who's not as into German food) thought things were good. I thought it was very tasty
HOWEVER Germany was the least organized of all the kiosks on Saturday. My brother didn't mind as he liked looking at the German girls working there... My brother also had the beer here. I'm not sure what he thought of it because I didn't ask. But he's a college kid...I'm sure he liked it
Cork, Ireland: We had the cheese selection (I like cheese) which was pretty good. I didn't like the chutney, but my friend did. I thought 2 of the cheeses tasted really similar, I would have liked it if they were more distinct. My brother had the Potato leak soup. He said that it was more like the leaks were pureed. But he said it was still delicious.
Hops & Barley: My parents got the Lobster Rolls. I didn't. I got one last year. They had the same reaction to them this year as we did last year (which is why I didn't get one.) It's good, it's tasty, but they charge a lot for a little bit. ($6.50 for a little taste...most things are around $3)
San Fransisco, USA: This was our favorite. Twenty gold stars. The beef medallion with cheese polenta was so good. My friend & I split one on Thursday, then both got one on Saturday. The beef was so tender you could cut it with the plastic knife. It was so delicious. Then the strawberry shortcake was still excellent from last year too. We each had one on Saturday night. YUM!
Tokyo, Japan: One of the last stops on Saturday night, I really wanted to try more, but was kind of full at this point. Had the Cali Sushi Roll. VERY good. Really makes me want to try Tokyo Dining, which I guess is the point
New York State Wine Adventure: Kind of did this one for giggles...I live in NY, Rochester is considered part of the Finger Lakes and one of the wineries that was there is 20 minutes from my front door! But they just had Ice Wine from that one (Casa Larga is the one I'm referring to) and I dislike Ice Wine. So my friend & I had 2 other wines from the Seneca Lake region which I can get from home
They were good! Surprise surprise! We have a TON of wineries up here (something like 100 wineries within an hour's drive from Rochester alone. So come visit!)
Wellington, New Zealand: More of our favorites. The Lamb Slider was excellent. So was the Kiwi Tart. The Kiwi Tart we loved last year, so we tried it again this year. It's different from last year, but still excellent. It was my friend's favorite dessert.
Lyon, France: Someone we were with tried everything here
We tried the snails, which were great. My friend tried them for the first time, so we don't have much to compare it to! My parents tried the quiche which they thought was good. I had the Chocolate Creme Brulee which was excellent. And of course both Thursday and Saturday we had our favorite drinks, the Pomegranate Kirs
My Dad's favorite wine was here, the Merlot
Montreal, Canada: Loved everything here again and while at the top of our list, wasn't our absolute favorites. (Those honors go to New Zealand & San Fran!) They had the Salmon, Cheddar Cheese Soup & Maple Custard again. Still YUMMY!
Athens, Greece: The biggest disappointment was here. Last year our absolute favorite was the spanikopita. This year they changed it. It was all spinach and no feta. The filo was crispy, but it was too greasy. It was tasty, but didn't make a blip and compared to last years, was very disappointing.
Krakow, Poland: Pierogies & Kielbasa as usual were very very good. Line here on Saturday was really long but worth the wait. Right behind New Zealand & San Fran for the top honors.
Last, but not least was San Juan, Puerto Rico: I believe this was a new addition for this year. It was very interesting to try. And surprisingly we liked it a lot. We tried the Mofongo which was a shrimp and plantain mash...it was good. And then the Plantain and Beef Casserole which was great. Between the two, I would recommend the Casserole.
Booths we skipped entirely: Champagne, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Austria, India, South Africa, Italy, Morocco, Louisiana, and Turkey
Tips: Don't try to do it all in one day! Stay hydrated! Weekdays are far less crowded than weekends! Thursday we walked up to the register and Saturday we waited at every booth. It was VERY different!! Oh, and I think we had more to drink but I apparently didn't mark all of those down...hmmm....
