Food and Wine and All That Jazz (w/pics)

[tndisneyfan]

So here we are again. We just arrived this morning,10/06, after driving all night. Just to let you know a bit about us: there's me (Lori), DH, and DS(18). I'm a fairly adventurous eater, I'll try anything. DH is a little picky, but not too much. He doesn't like any fish, mushrooms, or anything with mayo in it. DS is fairly adventurous too. He won't eat fish or mushrooms but will try about anything else. We all love the food and wine festival. It's what we're here for.

We are staying until Friday October 12, staying offsite at Bonnet Creek. We are mainly doing counter service and F&WF. We have one ADR at Paradiso 37. I hope to take a lot of pics especially of F&WF.

 

[tndisneyfan]

Just to get everything going, we had our first meal today at Backlot Express. Reviews and pics to come later.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Have a great trip. Definitely interested in reviews of F&WF booth offerings as wexarrive this Friday.

 

[tndisneyfan]

So I'm on my reviews. I meant to get on them earlier but the wifi here at Bonnet Creek has been a pain. I thought I was going to have to do them on my iPhone with 3g, but the laptop is picking up a signal.

OK so we've ate at Backlot Express several times. There's not a lot of great CS at DHS so we stick with what we know. We like Starring Rolls also but we were closer to BE so we ate at BE.

We ate around 11:30 and there was almost no crowd. One thing I noticed, but didn't get a picture of, is they have a rope que type thing set up. Kind of like at a bank. You line up in that que and then go to the next available CM. We didn't really get to see it in action because there was no crowd, but I kind of liked it. The reason why is DH and I are NOTORIOUS for getting behind the slowest people. If there's a line that isn't moving we'll pick it every time. That's just how we roll....unfortunately.

So anyway onto the chow.

Hot Dog with Chili and Fries


I got the Hotdog with Chili. There's not a lot to chose from, basically burgers and sandwiches. The CM asked if I would like cheese and onion, why yes I would thank you very much. The picture is blurry but this is how it came out. I've had this before and they put the cheese and onion in a separate cut. I kind of liked putting it on myself better, just because I wouldn't have put quite as much onion. There was a ton of cheese thumbsup2) though. The hotdog itself was just OK. Not bad not great. I thought it could've used a little more chili, and I didn't think it was quite hot enough. It was lukewarm instead of hot. But it was fine.

1/3 lb Bacon Cheese Burger


Sorry I know the pictures aren't great. I took them with my iphone and it was also in a waterproof pouch, but it's a pic. So DH and DS both got this. They thought it was fine, nothing great, just a typical WDW burger. He said his fries were very fresh which is odd because mine were just OK.

Overall we like this restaurant. The food is decent and the best part is the drink station. You get your own drink and plenty of refills. We had been on the road all night and probably weren't drinking like we should so we were all thirsty. We sat right beside the drink station and refilled a couple of times each.

 

[tndisneyfan]

I may have to experiment with my photo size so have patience with me.

 

[tndisneyfan]

We were all tired so left DHS not long after we ate. We checked in at WBC, unpacked, and everyone took a short snooze. I'm getting to old to drive all night and hit the parks. We knew we would be too tired to go back to a park so we decided to head to a resort to eat dinner. We debated for a while and DS spoke up and said what about Caribbean Beach Resort. We haven't been there in years. So to CBR we went.

We hadn't been here in 10 years, since our first trip to WDW as a family in '03. We walked around a bit to see what offerings they had. I finally decided to get mine at the Broiler Station.

Roasted Chicken with two sides


DH and I both got this. I got mine with broccoli and corn and he got broccoli and mashed taters. I decided just to post the one picture since it was basically the same thing just with one different side. The chicken was pretty good. It was a half a chicken, though it wasn't huge. The dark meat was really good and moist but the white meat part was a little dry. Not so dry we wouldn't eat it, but on the dry side. Both of us liked the broccoli. It was cooked the way we like it, soft enough to eat but not cooked to a mush. It did need a touch of salt though. My other side was corn with peppers and onions. It was good, better than just plain corn. Not spicy or hot at all though. DH got mashed taters. The reason I didn't get them is because they had peel in them. I HATE TATERS WITH PEEL IN THEM. Oh well. DH said they were edible and that's about it. They looked like they had been sitting there a while.

Bake Ziti with Italian Sausage


This looked good and I regret not trying it when DS offered. He said it was very good. It had large chunks of sausage and a lot of cheese and sauce. It did take time to bake, I guess because they bake it fresh. It took around 5 minutes. It also came with a breadstick but I forgot to see what DS thought about it.

CheeseCake


It is what it is, a prepackaged cheese cake. DS likes them but he prefers the marbled one over a plain one. I don't care for them but I didn't have to eat it.

I want to add here that OPR has the rapid refill drink stations. I don't know if all food courts have them now or not, but this was our first experience. We bought individual drinks in a paper cup. DH noticed a sign that said the cups were good for an hour and three fillups. Or maybe it said three refills. We were a little put out because as I noted earlier we were still running thirsty and I really wanted to tank up on Coke while I was there. But it ended up not being a big deal at all. We both filled up and got one refill each and we were fine. We didn't want anymore. So right now, at this point and time, I'm going to say I'm fine with the rapid refill drink stations.

Overall we enjoyed our food but I wouldn't hurry back to eat here again. I didn't think OPR had the variety that other moderate and value food courts have. DS thought they had a good variety, he claims they just didn't have the variety I wanted. That could be true.

 

[tndisneyfan]

Have a great trip. Definitely interested in reviews of F&WF booth offerings as wexarrive this Friday.

We are hitting F&WF tomorrow. I hope to have the first pictures by tomorrow afternoon. I thought I might post them with my iphone but it's just too hard to type and do.

We plan to do F&WF at least three times.

 

[tndisneyfan]

I'm eating in the rain…just eating in the rain…

 

[wilma-bride]

Great start. We arrive in a few weeks, can't wait to see some pics from F&WF

 

[tndisneyfan]

So today is supposed to be all about Food and Wine. That's what we come here for. Well the rain put a little damper on our plans. We did get some food and wine though.

We started off the day some rides waiting for WS to open. The first thing we did was get on the boat and head to the American Pavilion. One thing I noticed, even though it was just after 11:00 there was already a good sized crowd at the booths in the front of WS. So we went to the American Pavilion first because we wanted to go to the Chase Lounge and get a free Coke (or three) and see if we could sign up for the Chase Illuminations. We did sign up for Illuminations and we did get Coke. I was surprised to see a Coke Freestyle machine instead of just a fountain machine. So I got cherry coke instead of just plain old coke.

So after we saturated ourselves with Coke we headed out to start our Food and Wine adventure . One thing you will notice is we don't really drink much alcohol. This is mostly a food fest for us but we will occasionally splurge and get a drink.

Hops and Barley
Lobster Roll


Since it was right there as we left the American Pavilion, my first stop was Hops and Barley. I got the Lobster Roll, and it was mine all mine. DH won't eat any fish and DS will only eat shrimp. I tried to get him to try it but he wouldn't so I sacrificed and ate it myself. So first things first as we got close to H&B I noticed a strong fishy smell. It really smelled bad near the booth, almost like rotted fish. I grabbed my sandwich and left the area to eat it because the smell was about to make me . So onto the lobster roll. IT seemed smaller this year than last year, I'm not sure though, I'd have to compare pictures. There was a lot of meat on there. I thought it could've used a little more mayo, but I like mayo. A few of the lobster pieces were a little fishy, but good overall. A good value on the Dining Plan, which I'm not on.

Japan
California Roll


So after I ate my lobster roll we headed on to get DS's favorite. Yes the California Roll. He loved it and refused to share. I guess it was good.

Teriyaki Chicken Roll


Since DH won't eat any seafood I thought I could get him to share this teriyaki chicken roll. My thinking was half of it had nori and half didn't. I would eat the half with and he could have the half without. Well not only was there nori outside there was nori on the inside too. DH took one bite and he was done. He wouldn't even swallow it. My bad. I didn't really like my half either. With the two layers of nori it was just too much nori. It overpowered any taste of chicken or teriyaki sauce.

Morocco
Kefta Pocket


This is a family favorite and it didn't disappoint. It's like a hamburger in a pita type bun. It's a ground beef patty with this red sauce on it that kind of tastes like ketchup kicked up a notch or two. It also has a cabbage and carrot slaw, but didn't seem to have mayo. We really like this and will get it again I'm sure.

Harissa Chicken Roll


This has a fancier name but I can't think of it, I'll have to go back and change it later. This was a surprise. A good surprise. I took the picture with it cut open so you could see the inside but the picture is blurry so you can't really see the insides. We all thought it had a Mexican taste to it. It reminded me of a taquito in an egg roll wrapper. It was very good. It was a little spicy with just a little heat left after you ate. It had corn, chicken, black beans, and more in it.

I only have a few more pictures to post but don't have time to do it before we head back to Epcot. I'LL be back in a bit.

OK we actually never left. We were getting ready to leave and we looked out and it's monsooning. We found this afternoon its hard to eat in the rain so we are holding off a few minutes to see what happens with the weather. In the meantime I'll finish this up.

Belgium
Belgian Waffle with Berry Compote


So after Morocco we stopped and Belgium. We wanted to try both the waffles so we got both. This is the berry one of course. I asked the guy cooking and he said the compote had raspberries, blueberries, and cherries with a simple syrup. DH loved it but I didn't. I'm not a huge berry fan anyways and I found this to be a little tart. DH likes berries more than me so he liked it. The waffle was good.

Belgian Waffle with Chocolate Ganache


It's aggravating me that my pics are no better than they are. But anyway, onto the chocolate waffle. Of course the waffle was the same. Both were warm and fresh with a nice flavor. I was a little disappointed in the chocolate on this one, I expected it to be richer. It was still good.

DS didn't want to try a waffle, he headed to France to get a crepe and met us back at the tables in Belgium

Crepe with Chocolate Sauce


So this is the crepe, not a food and wine item but still in the world showcase. He loves them and I don't know why. It's just a thin pancake with Hershey's chocolate syrup on it. Whatever floats his boat.

About the time we sat down with our food the sky opened up. We sat there for a while and debated on what to do. We can't snack when it's raining that hard because the food would get soaked. We waited for it to stop but it didn't. We had snacked quite a bit but no one was full. We decided to go to France Bakery and get something a little more substantial and head on back to WBC to rest.

We did get this on the way.

Grand Marnier Slush


Orangey, slushy liquor. You can't beat that. We try to get one every trip and share it. It's great every time.

So we stopped at the bakery and got a few things.

France Bakery I can't remember the name and my internet is acting up so I'll have to fix it later.

Ham and Cheese Sandwich


I was obviously on some kind of Grand Marnier/Belgian Waffle high when I took this picture. What the heck? Ok so DS got this sandwich. He got it cold and I think it would've been better warm like the nice CM offered. The meat and cheese was good but the bread was too chewy for him. Probably wouldn't have been so chewy if it had been heated.

Apple Turnover


Not sure of the actual name but it was basically an apple turnover. DH said the crust was very good, very flakey and buttery. He didn't think there was enough apple filling in it and thought and it lacked flavor.

Chocolate Croussaint (yeah that's spelled wrong)



DS got this. It was fine a typical chocolate crou......well you know what I'm trying to spell

Macaroons


We all shared these but I actually got them. I had no idea they were over $10 or I never would've got them. They were good though. The different colors were different flavors, there was lemon, raspberry, blueberry, and I'm not sure about the other two.

Overall we enjoyed the bakery.

We did decide to head back to the room even though the rain had stopped. We decided to come back later to snack around for dinner. Just got back from that actually but I'm too tired to do those reviews right now. Will finish them up tomorrow.

 

[tndisneyfan]

So it quit raining and we decided to go back to Epcot. Well when we got to Epcot it started pouring again. We knew it would blow by quick so we just hung out at the entrance for 15 minutes or so until it passed. We had a fastpass for TT but figured it wasn't running due to the rain so we rode Spaceship Earth then headed back to do some damage.

We debated on where to start so we decided to start in the middle and go left towards Mexico. We needed to make it to Italy for Illuminations because we had signed up for Chase's Viewing spot.

Onto the food.

I stopped at the first beer place as you enter because I decided I wanted a beer. I got a beer flight and me and DH were gong to split it.

Beer Flight #1


There's card there telling what they are but I don't think you can read it. I have that card somewhere but I can't find it right now so I may have to come back and redo this. The only one I really liked was the seasonal Shandy. It had a citrus flavor. There was an Abita that was OK. Number four there on the lower right side was awful, it was very bitter and dry. I wasn't in as much of mood as I thought for beer and we ended up throwing most of it away.

Brazil
Crispy Pork Belly with Black Beans


DH and I both liked this, DS wouldn't try it. I've never had pork belly so I didn't know what to expect. I thought it was supposed to be like bacon. This wasn't like bacon, but it was really good. It tasted like an oven roasted piece of pork, maybe something like a shoulder with some fat in it. Neither of us are big black bean eater but we both liked the black beans, they had more flavor to them than just bean flavor.

Argentina
Beef Empanada


This is a favorite for us. Everyone likes it. We had to wait a long time to get it though. I guess they had just run out and had more in the oven. The empanada is a cooked dough with seasoned ground beef in it. The dough is similar to a pie dough, it reminds me of the dough my grandmother used to use for fried apple pies. The beef is seasoned, not really spicy but a little sweet.

Australia
Garlic Shrimp


This looked like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for quite a while. DS ate two and I ate one. The shrimp was good, but I prefer the shrimp on the Barbie from previous years. It did have a garlic flavor but not overpowering. I tried roasted tomatoes, lemon myrtle, and rapini that was under it. It was oK but really did seem like it had been sitting there for a while.

Mexico
Shrimp Taco w/Purple Cabbage


This was pretty good. Seems like in years past it was grilled shrimp instead of fried. DS wouldn't touch it because it was fried shrimp. There was three smallish shrimp on there.

Taco de Ribeye


We also got the Ribeye taco. It was good but hot. I consider myself to have above average tolerance for hot food, but this burnt my mouth up. It was good, there was a fair amount of beef, but it was spicy.

China
Mongolian Beef in a Steamed Bun

We got this last year for the first time and had to get it again. We love this. The best part is that soft steamed bun. I wish I could order extra bun. There was a good amount of beef and the sauce was good. We noticed something crunchy in there when we were eating it, it didn't have much taste but it added some texture. We opened it up and we think it was a Chow Mein noodle.

South Korea
Kimchi Dog with Spicy Mustard


I wanted to try the lettuce wraps here but I was filling up, so we went with the Kimchi dog. To me it tasted just like a hot dog with hot and spicy slaw on it. DH thought it was OK, it was different. It went a little heavy on the spicy mustard sauce or maybe the kimchi. Ds liked the meat and bun but didn't care for the kimchi part.

Germany
Bratwurst on a Pretzel Roll


It was getting too dark to take pics for me. My iphone is in a waterproof carrier right now and the flash leaves a glare against the plastic. So DH used his flashlight app and shined it on the food and I took a picture. Anyway, this is another favorite. The bratwurst is good and we all like the pretzel bread it comes on. I thought the pretzel bread was a little tough this year but it was still tasty

Apple Streudel


Another favorite. Apple in a pastry with vanilla sauce. DH and DS love this, me not as much. I'm not a big apple fan (it's a texture thing). I did take one bite and it was fine.

Ds wasn't finding much to satisfy his hunger, so we headed to Japan to get him some more Sushi. Not from the F&W booth but from the stand that sells it. They used to have whole rolls but this time only had a four piece. I didn't get a picture.

We also decided we wanted to try one of those pumpkin spice funnel cakes. So he goes to get his sushi and I stand in line for a funnel cake.

Pumpkin Spice Funnel Cake


You can't really tell it from the picture but this funnel cake is dark brown. When I saw one in the window I thought it was chocolate. Everyone in the family liked the funnel cake, but honestly I didn't taste any pumpkin. I tasted mostly spices I associate with pumpkin pie, like nutmeg and maybe allspice. It was good and I would get another one.

After we ate we headed back up to Chase lounge for a while to kill some time before Illuminations. I drank a little more Cherry Coke and kicked back on a couch for a bit. I enjoyed our Illuminations spot but I have to say I'm not a huge fan of Illuminations. I prefer Wishes or Fantasmic.

 

[Nohal]

I'm in enjoying your review.

 

[tndisneyfan]

I'm behind on my reviews, been busy at the parks. Hope to get back on them this afternoon.

 

[GrumpyFamilyof5]

enjoying your reviews and pics, can't wait to see more! We'll be there in 9 days and some of what you tried is on our list, now that I know the taco is that spicy, DH might have to eat that one alone,lol