Food Porn & Other Stories: A Dining Review ~ 1/19-1/28/08

[TarzansKat]

A Kir Royale is champagne and Creme de Cassis, which is a currant liqueur. It is my very favorite out of the many champagne cocktails I enjoy!

It sounds good. I promise you, when I have one on my next trip, I will toast my new DIS comrade, honeybee30!

 

[oybolshoi]

Sign me up, too. When do classes start?

They already have.

Rebecca was the novel I used in my paper. I thought I saw it on the suggested reading list on your blog. Good stuff!

Yas'm, you saw correctly. I sho' did put Rebecca on my list. I've always loved that book and have read it waaaaaay too many times to count. I think Mrs. Danvers is one of the creepiest characters ever ... she gives me the heebie jeebies.

You should really get in on this Twilight action that MagiKitty, princesstinkerbelle, and I have been obsessing about throughout this whole thread, (if you haven’t already, that is! ). I bet you’d really like the series, and then we can discuss!

Tell me more. I don't follow a lot of shows ... or is it a series of books? Right now the only series I'm following closely is Battlestar Galactica and quite frankly it's horking me off lately. I don't mind answer-answerless in a show now and then ... speculation is fun and creates conversation, but it's been five years of fog and I'm getting annoyed by it.

Uh, sorry. Back to your food porn ... didn't mean to derail the good stuff.

 

[LookingGlassGirl]

OOOPS! Sorry! Typing on DGF's laptop! LookingGlassGirl is Heather's screen name & this is her DIS account, but it's really me, honeybee30!

Tell me more. I don't follow a lot of shows ... or is it a series of books? Right now the only series I'm following closely is Battlestar Galactica and quite frankly it's horking me off lately. I don't mind answer-answerless in a show now and then ... speculation is fun and creates conversation, but it's been five years of fog and I'm getting annoyed by it.

I know, but I must spread the word!

They are a series of books aimed at young adults, but they have gained massive popularity with, well, everybody, a lot like HP did. Twilight is the 1st book, Eclipse is the 2nd book, and New Moon is the 3rd book. Breaking Dawn, the one we're all so amped up about, is the final book in the series and it comes out 8/2. The movie version of Twilight comes out this Christmas.

The series is about an average sort of girl who goes to live with her father in Washington state and falls in love with a vampire. There are also werewolves and lots of unrequited love and suspense, etc... Judging by your taste in books, I bet you'd like them.

 

[CoolDisneyKitten]

I know this is probably gonna get me officially banned from this thread, and maybe from the DIS boards altogether, but I have a confession... I don't like the Twilight books! I read the first two, and what's-her-name was just so DUMB!! I couldn't stand her. I wanted to smack her pretty much 99% of the time, and those are really long books to want to smack the main character all the way through.

Ok, now that I've said that and everyone is ignoring me... I gotta get one of those cheese platters at California Grill! That looked amazing!

 

[girli565]

honeybee30, definitely no stinky cheese, but I'm willing to try anything at least once!

Also, I'm LOVING this report! I also have a deep love for champagne, Rosa Regale is my fave sparkling wine! But I'm really a champagne lush, as long as it's bubbly I'm in!

 

[John's Mom]

Thanks for signing on! I’ve noticed you on the Poly FAQ thread lately. Do you have a trip coming up?

My DH and I are staying at the Poly and the AKL in December. This will be our first stay at The Poly and our first split stay. I hope you do a review of the Poly and the Tambu Lounge. I also love any drink that has rum in it.

 

[Booknut]

Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum!!!

Your food port/report is the bees knees!!!!

I would LOVE to eat that sushi platter...all of it, just for me, no sharing I'm gutted we won't be able to go next time - our daughter Matilda will be 14 months and I don't know if she'd appreciate a long leisurely dinner whilst mummy moans her way through a 4 course extravaganza

And i'm all for that cheese club, just tell me where to send my membership dues

 

[honeybee30]

I know this is probably gonna get me officially banned from this thread, and maybe from the DIS boards altogether, but I have a confession... I don't like the Twilight books! I read the first two, and what's-her-name was just so DUMB!! I couldn't stand her. I wanted to smack her pretty much 99% of the time, and those are really long books to want to smack the main character all the way through.

Ok, now that I've said that and everyone is ignoring me... I gotta get one of those cheese platters at California Grill! That looked amazing!

*Huff* I'm officially pouting now! J/K Too each her own! But you will definitely not be granted membership into the "We Heart Edward" fanclub, so there!

honeybee30, definitely no stinky cheese, but I'm willing to try anything at least once!

Also, I'm LOVING this report! I also have a deep love for champagne, Rosa Regale is my fave sparkling wine! But I'm really a champagne lush, as long as it's bubbly I'm in!

Now I have a confession to make.... I've never had Rosa Regale!

My DH and I are staying at the Poly and the AKL in December. This will be our first stay at The Poly and our first split stay. I hope you do a review of the Poly and the Tambu Lounge. I also love any drink that has rum in it.

This will be our first stay at the Poly, too. I'm really excited! We loved AKL. It was our most relaxing Disney vacation and I think the resort had a lot to do with that.

 

[TigerKat]

Now I have a confession to make.... I've never had Rosa Regale!

You & Heather must remedy this very soon! Have chocolates on hand too...

 

[oybolshoi]

You & Heather must remedy this very soon! Have chocolates on hand too...

Rosa Regale is very good with cheese, too!

 

[TigerKat]

Rosa Regale is very good with cheese, too!

I'm taking notes!!!!

 

[honeybee30]

I've heard tell it is good stuff. Rosa Regale is a dessert wine, no? It will go on the drink list for August (a list all it's own, separate from the food ) , if not sooner....

You & Heather must remedy this very soon! Have chocolates on hand too...

Champagne and chocolate

Rosa Regale is very good with cheese, too!

But is it good with cheescake?

 

[TigerKat]

I've heard tell it is good stuff. Rosa Regale is a dessert wine, no? It will go on the drink list for August (a list all it's own, separate from the food ) , if not sooner....

Champagne and chocolate

Here ya go:

http://www.vigneregali.com/show/xml..._id-cnloeafnbmecddlmlbhdcgmfodeennnjgbenlcaf/

 

[honeybee30]

Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum!!!

Your food port/report is the bees knees!!!!

I would LOVE to eat that sushi platter...all of it, just for me, no sharing I'm gutted we won't be able to go next time - our daughter Matilda will be 14 months and I don't know if she'd appreciate a long leisurely dinner whilst mummy moans her way through a 4 course extravaganza

And i'm all for that cheese club, just tell me where to send my membership dues

I love the saying "bees knees" and I love your daughter's name. Matilda - so cute!

 

[honeybee30]

Here ya go:

http://www.vigneregali.com/show/xml..._id-cnloeafnbmecddlmlbhdcgmfodeennnjgbenlcaf/

Thanks for the link, Kat. Sounds wonderful!

 

[princesstinkerbelle]

They already have.




Yas'm, you saw correctly. I sho' did put Rebecca on my list. I've always loved that book and have read it waaaaaay too many times to count. I think Mrs. Danvers is one of the creepiest characters ever ... she gives me the heebie jeebies.



Tell me more. I don't follow a lot of shows ... or is it a series of books? Right now the only series I'm following closely is Battlestar Galactica and quite frankly it's horking me off lately. I don't mind answer-answerless in a show now and then ... speculation is fun and creates conversation, but it's been five years of fog and I'm getting annoyed by it.

Go buy the following books right away:
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
all by Stephanie Meyer

Then proceed to make an advanced reservation for Breaking Dawn (you will thank me for this!)
Enjoy

I know this is probably gonna get me officially banned from this thread, and maybe from the DIS boards altogether, but I have a confession... I don't like the Twilight books! I read the first two, and what's-her-name was just so DUMB!! I couldn't stand her. I wanted to smack her pretty much 99% of the time, and those are really long books to want to smack the main character all the way through.

NOOOOOOOOOO....haha i second honeybee...no Edward for you! Bella can't help but be a little "off"...she is in love with a freaking vampire!! I hope you come to your sences lol...but its cool....most of my friends think i am insane for my Twilight obcession.

 

[disneyquilter]

I love your TR's honeybee!! Great reviews so far Can't wait for more

 

[oybolshoi]

OK, here's some suggestions for my cheese-lovin friends ... thanks Honeybee for letting me steal your thread for a minute. If we ever end up at WDW at the same time Jay and I will buy a round of Kirs.

Cheese Padawan Kathy ... do you like blue cheese? I would suggest a Roquefort (French) or perhaps Maytag Blue (American). Tasty with pears and with some Balsamic vinegar.

Cypress Grove sells some wonderful goat cheeses, which I am rapidly becoming a fiend for. If you like mushrooms they sell something called Truffle Tremor. I didn't like it but Jay thought it was tremendous (very strong flavor, IMHO). Their Humboldt Fog is fabulous ... it looks like a blue cheese but actually has a vein of vegetable ash running through the center.

Hmmmm, that seems to be all that I have for the moment. You'll have to let me know what kind of cheeses you're really looking for.

That's one reason I love cheese plates ... we can try things in small portions that we might not otherwise purchase. And sometimes I try things that I end up falling in love with!

 

[honeybee30]

Go buy the following books right away:
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
all by Stephanie Meyer

Then proceed to make an advanced reservation for Breaking Dawn (you will thank me for this!)
Enjoy:cheer2

Ooops. I think I mixed up the order in my last post. New Moon then Eclipse. Have you heard of the special edition of Eclipse that is coming out with new cover art and a preview chapter of Breaking Dawn?

Bella can't help but be a little "off"...she is in love with a freaking vampire!!

Sad to say I can relate to Bella in so many ways. I too love vampires, in the hypothetical sense anyway. Although, Heather does promise to sire me if she ever becomes a creature of the night, which would be awesome. LOL. I also shy away from overt displays of emotion. And I'm definitely accident proned.

I love your TR's honeybee!! Great reviews so far Can't wait for more

Hey there! Wondering where you were!

OK, here's some suggestions for my cheese-lovin friends ... thanks Honeybee for letting me steal your thread for a minute. If we ever end up at WDW at the same time Jay and I will buy a round of Kirs.

Cheese Padawan Kathy ... do you like blue cheese? I would suggest a Roquefort (French) or perhaps Maytag Blue (American). Tasty with pears and with some Balsamic vinegar.

Cypress Grove sells some wonderful goat cheeses, which I am rapidly becoming a fiend for. If you like mushrooms they sell something called Truffle Tremor. I didn't like it but Jay thought it was tremendous (very strong flavor, IMHO). Their Humboldt Fog is fabulous ... it looks like a blue cheese but actually has a vein of vegetable ash running through the center.

Hmmmm, that seems to be all that I have for the moment. You'll have to let me know what kind of cheeses you're really looking for.

That's one reason I love cheese plates ... we can try things in small portions that we might not otherwise purchase. And sometimes I try things that I end up falling in love with!

Be my guest, madame. I am honeybee30 and I approve this message.

I love all the cheeses you mentioned! But the Kirs are on me.

 

[honeybee30]

Things started to go downhill health-wise on Thursday. We were definitely dragging. Our plan was to spend the day eating, drinking, and shopping our way around World Showcase in Epcot, and since WS doesn’t really open till 11am, we took the opportunity to sleep-in a little, which was much needed. And despite the run-down feeling, we were excited! Epcot is our favorite! So many countries! So many cocktails! For some odd reason, I really enjoy the counter service nachos in the Mexico pavilion, so that was our first stop.

Breakfast Cantina de San Angel style!

Disgustingly good Cantina Nachos with tortilla chips, beef, cheese, tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, sour cream, and refried black beans. We eat these with extra sour cream and douse them with packet upon packet of cheapy hot sauce. Also notice the churro. It tastes like cinnamon Styrofoam, which just goes to show that even foamed polystyrene tastes good deep fried and rolled in sugar! And what would a Mexican feast be without some alcoholic slushiness to wash it all down – a frozen lime margarita, with salt of course!

Norway is only good for one thing (that hussy) and I don’t mean garden gnomes (or trolls or whatever that multi-headed thing is that hexes everybody on Maelstrom). Norway is synonymous with bread in this family. One special type of bread in particular…. It’s sweet. It’s filled with goo. It’s educated. You guessed it: School Bread!

This time, in addition to that creamy coconutty confection we all love so, DGF wanted to try one of their waffles. These are made fresh to order, filled with strawberry jam, and then dusted with powdered sugar. And they smell even better than waffle cones! So Norway isn’t a one trick pony after all! We also had a Viking Coffee, which is Kamora Coffee Liqueur and Baileys Original Irish Cream. Perfect for a winter’s day when one has a scratchy throat!

After almost asphyxiating on Norwegian perfume (that hussy), we continued on our tour, looking through the shops in China and Germany before moving on to Italy, where we bought some Venetian glass Christmas ornaments. Since we were right there, it would have been unconscionable to pass up a Bellini.

This delicious cocktail is made with Prosecco and peach puree. Fruity and refreshing!

Next stop on the alcohol express – France – home of the Grey Goose Citron Slush and the Grand Marnier Slush. It’s a cornucopia of slushy goodness!

Lemon for me (Citron) and orange for DGF (Grand Marnier).

So good DGF broke out into theatrics:

She’s such a drama queen! Actually, we found this mask lying on a bench. It says “I love sunshine.” So cute!

And just when you thought we couldn’t drink anymore, we down a pitcher of sangria! With a straw, no less!

But there’s some back story here, so lemme ‘splain….

Originally we had a 7:30pm ADR for Flying Fish, which is one of our favorite Disney restaurants. But by about 5 o’clock we had done WS, we were over it, and we were ready to sit down. This can be attributed to any number of factors, most notably the 6 hours of drinking we had just done, but I suspect the evil flu bug was a culprit here as well. So we decided that we’d hop a boat to the Boardwalk and ask to be seated early. Keep in mind this is January, the s-l-o-w season (sorry, I’ll never let that one go…). We walked in to an empty restaurant. They had literally just opened. Empty tables out the wazoo. Servers standing around, watching the glasses sweat. I approached the hostess and politely made my request. Denied! I repeat, the hostess said, “No, but come back in an hour and we’ll see what we can do.”

I was a good sport about this rejection for a total of 10 minutes, and then it started to rain. Cold yucky rain. I’d take the steamy sauna summer rain any day over that cold yucky winter rain! At this point DGF intuited from my facial expression that now was not a good time for a lesson in patience. She really wanted to eat there and I felt bad about missing it, but waiting an hour in the rain in a “we’ll see what we can do” situation was not going to happen. Instead we walked next door to Spoodles and they sat us right away! Now I don’t hold a grudge against Flying Fish per se. That hostess was a crotch cricket, but we’ve had good service there in the past and we plan to eat there again in the future. August, in fact.

Actually it was a happy disaster because Spoodles was very good. We had an excellent server, although I can’t remember her name. (Sometimers strikes again! ) We were each going to get a single glass of the sangria, but she encouraged us to go for the pitcher. Atta girl!

Smart move really because the tipsier we get, the better we tip! In case you’re unfamiliar with this lovely, Spanish beverage, sangria is a blend of red wine, brandy, triple sec, orange juice and citrus fruit.

A view of the open kitchen from where we sat:

Spot the hidden Mickey?

Herby focaccia bread with olive oil for dipping:

For an appetizer, we had the Mediterranean Dips. I can’t remember precisely what everything was but I think it included a creamy feta cheese dip, a spicy chermoula dip, a cool tzatziki or cucumber/ yogurt dip, and hummus. It was served with toasted pita for dipping and marinated olives.

Really fabulous. We loved all these flavors. All the dips were wonderful with the pita. The hummus was a bit boring, but then again, I make an awesome homemade hummus!

For our main course, we both got the Oak-fired Steak Kabobs with multigrain pilaf, balsamic red onions, and harissa:

In retrospect, we could’ve easily shared one order. Neither of us made a dent in this.

A little blurry? Must be the punch!

Not my favorite entrée of the trip. The meat was a little chewy and the rice was sort of bland. But it wasn’t terrible either.

Even though we were stuffed at this point, we went ahead and asked our server for a dessert suggestion. She raved about the cheesecake, so we shared a piece.

This is a Mascarpone Cheesecake with a walnut crust served with fresh strawberries and a balsamic reduction. Very good cheesecake! And believe me, we are connoisseurs! DGF really liked the balsamic with strawberries. I agree those flavors do go wonderfully together. We also shared a hot toddy to sooth our poor throats. It’s a White Chocolate coffee with Godiva liqueur and Bailey’s Irish Cream. It did the job!

In the next chapter, the unthinkable happens .….Stay tuned to find out more…..