Food & Wine Festival- our experience

[kamgen]

Just got home from a few days down at the F&W Festival. Overall, it was a lot of fun and the stuff was great...one tip- AVOID weekends!
Here is what we tried and what we thought:
1. Greece: Spanakopita
This was really great. It tasted very fresh and we both enjoyed it
2. Canada: Maple Glazed salmon and the maple custard with almond crumble
This was DH's favorite hot dish. He loved the salmon. The dessert was great and we both highly recommend it!
3. France:Quiche au Fromage de Chèvre - Goat Cheese and Sun-dried Tomato Quiche and the Pomegranate Kir
This was my favorite hot dish! LOVED IT!!!!! This drink is so good we plan to make them at home!
4. Oklahoma: Pecan Pie, Native Peach Buckle and Chardonnay
Okay, laugh if you want to, but this was our favorite dessert!! Best Pecan Pie we ever had!!! We actually returned so many times, they knew us! LOL! The Peach buckle was just okay. The Chardonnay was one of our favorites from the entire festival.
5. Australia: Wine Walkabout
This was a lot of fun and totally worth the $7. We got to try 4 different wines (8 for us because we selected different things each time and shared). Our favorite was the Lindemens Chardonnay. Least fav- the Greg Norman....sorry!
6. Germany: Apple Strudel with vanilla sauce
This was really good and light. The sauce was great. Definitely worth the try!
7. South Africa: Boboti with mango chutney and the Fairview Sauvignon Blanc
Great pairing. The boboti was awesome with the mango flavors and the wine was a great side to this dish. Good size portions too.
8. Ireland: Boxty Potato Pancake - with Bacon Chips and Kerrygold Garlic and Fresh Herb Butter and the Bailey's Frozen coffee
The pancake would have been better if not smothered in onions. The flavor was terrible. But the bailey's coffee rocked!!!!! They should add this as a normal item at EPCOT.

We also went to the Treana wine seminar. Great info and the wine was wonderful. The Treana White was our favorite of the trip!

Other drinks we had were the Grand Marnier Orange Slush and Grey Goose Limon Slush in France (AWESOME, both of them!), the Imperial Rose' Nectar champagne - awesome with the chocolate truffles!
At the Wine Bar in the festival center we had the Banfi Regale Rose and LOVED it and the Conundrum which DH really liked.

Overall we had a great time and hope to do it again next year!!!

 

[Hopefully]

Kamgen, Thanks for the great review. I will add a bit of our experiences from 10/21 to 10/28. I was not as good as you at keeping track of what, when and specifically the pairings we had. But I can look at the menus and tell what we had. The bottom line is we LOVED the festival again and had a great week. We enjoyed:
Presidente Light Beer from the Dominican Republic. We never did get a snack here.
Labatt Blue from Canada. We got popcorn at the stand outside of Canada and decided not to try the F & W offerings. Nothing really called to us.
We tried Bass Pale Ale and Stella Artois From Great Beers of the World. I did not really like the Stella Artois, which surprised me but the Bass Pale Ale was good.
We tried the Greek Salad with Pita Bread and the Spanakopita - "Savory Spinach and Cheese Pastry" in Greece. I did not like the Spanakopita as well as last time. It had lots of spinach, but not much cheese. The salad was great.
From France I had "Quiche au Fromage de Chèvre - Goat Cheese and Sun-dried Tomato Quiche". I loved this, although it could have been a bit hotter.
We didn't try anything from Oklahoma. I thought about tasting the buffalo, we just never did.
DH and DS had the "Kefta - Grilled Beef and Hummus in a Pita Pocket" from Morroco while I enjoyed my Quiche from France. It also had lettuce and tomato in the pocket and they both loved it.
We didn't try anything from either Japan, Poland, or the USA I would have liked to try the lobster roll or ribs in the US, but there were so many wonderful international selections I just never did.
Australia was really my favorite. We enjoyed both the:" Shrimp on the Barbie" and the "Grilled Lamb Chop with Caramelized Onions". To be honest we went back for the Lamb Chops 4 times. I also enjoyed the Fosters beer the best of the beers I tried. DS and I also did the Australian Wine Walkabout and had fun. I agree it was a great value for $7.
In Italy we tried the "Lasagna al Forno - Baked Spinach Pasta with Meat Ragu" which was great and a really large serving, I was surprised at its size. and the "Pizza - Fennel Sausage, Bell Peppers, San Marzano Tomatoes and Mozzarella" which was also really good.
We didn't try and F & W offerings in Germany (other than Beck's Octoberfest Beer), South Africa, China or Turkey.
This year we tended to go back to the food we liked. We were on the DDP and used our snack credits for the food samples, and we did find that on many of our trips around WS, we were not really hungry.
We tried lots of beers and wines I haven't listed.
We love the F & W festival and this year did not disappoint. We only do the international booths and the free wine seminars. We have not attended any of the extra signature events.
We hopefully will be back again in the future.

 

[kamgen]

Thanks for your comments too!!! I found it to be tons of fun and cannot wait to do it again next year...