Food & Wine Festival Strategies.....What are your must eat's / drinks???

[Princess Michelle]

The F & W Festival is wonderful, I hope all your first timers enjoy yourselves! I'm looking forward to going back this year too!

Here is a link to my trip report if anyone would like to read it. It might give you an idea what to expect.

PM's 2003 F & W Festival Review

If you do a search on the Restaurant Board you should be able to find quite a bit of info and other people's reviews of the event.

I can't wait until October gets here and people start reporting back what's it's like this year!

 

[Snow_White]

Yum, yum, yum!! This thread makes me even more excited about going to WDW in 3 weeks!! Some of my favorites from last year's festival are:

Watermelon Water from Mexico
Maple Walnut Fudge from Canada
Corned Beef and Cabbage with Colcannon from Ireland
Rice Cream from Scandinavia
Stuffed Cabbage Roll from Poland
Bee Sweet Honey Lemonade from USA (my fiance's favorite....I hope they have it again this year for him!!)
Beef Stroganoff from Russia
Grapefruit Cake from the Colorful Eating place

The only thing that I tried and really hated was the Green Tea Mousse from Japan. Just really weird tasting, lol.

As you can see, we ate many dinners at the festival last year, lol! We plan to do the exact same thing this year! It's my favorite!!

 

[barbeml]

We love the F&W Festival.

I save singles during the year and paperclip them in bundles of 20. We each load up with singles since most samples are $1, $2, etc.

We start at one end (last year it was on the Canada side) at around 1 PM (after a light breakfast and plenty of Future World walking to work up an appetite). We visit every booth, get whatever we are interested in and SHARE one or two servings, depending on how many of us and who wants to try what.
Last year, there were six in our group, this year there will be three. Sharing allows us to taste many more items without getting too full or hammered.

Some of our favorites last year:

Ice Wine
Beef Stroganoff
Lamb
Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarte
Creme Brulee
Watermelon Water
Chicken Quesadilla

Since we will only be thre for the last day, we will do our lunch, dinner and dessert at F&W.

Don't forget to check out the Festival merchandise. An all-time fave WDW souvenir is our pair of F&W wine glasses.

Enjoy!

 

[barbeml]

From All-Ears, here is the list of booths expected this year:

Australia
Backyard Barbeque
Canada
China
Piemonte Chocolate Cafe
France
Mexico
Great Beers of the World
Greece
India
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Russian and Eastern Europe
Morocco and Mediterranean
New England, USA
New Zealand
Oktoberfest
Peru
Poland
Southeast Asia
South Africa
Scandinavia
Specialty Beer Garden
Valencia, Spain
Fresh From Florida

 

[Samirella]

They don't always have the same items each year. I kept my pamphlet from last year so here are some suggestions based on that:


Greece
Tasting: Honey Baklava, Greek Salad, Spanakopita
Wine & Beer: Boutari Kretikos Red

Ireland
Tasting: Corned Beef and Cabbage with Colcannon, Whiskey Flan
Wine & Beer: O'Mara's Irish Cream

Scandinavia
Tasting: Smoked Trout, Ricecream
Wine & Beer: Dunnewood Merlot

China
Tasting: Dan Dan Noodles, Hainan Mango Mousse
Wine & Beer: Akadama Plum Wine

Australia
Tasting: Australian Tenderloin with BBQ Sauce
Wine & Beer: Rosemount Diamond Shiraz

Oktoberfest
Tasting: Jaegerschnitzel, Apple Strudel
Wine & Beer: Dr. L Mosel Riesling

Italy
Tasting: Baked Ziti Carbonara, Cannoli
Wine & Beer: Placido Pino Grigio

United States
Tasting: Crab Cakes, Cheesecake
Wine & Beer: Ravenswood Zinfandel

Japan
Tasting: Yasai Maki, Sweet Green Tea Mousse
Wine & Beer: Ozeki Dry Sake

France
Tasting: Goat Cheese and Tomato Tart, Creme Brulee
Wine & Beer: Georges DuBoeuf Beaujolais Villages

Canada
Tasting: Cheddar Cheese Soup, Maple Walnut Fudge
Wine & Beer: Pearl Ice Wine

Russia and Eastern Europe
Tasting: Potato Pancake with Sauerkraut and Sour Cream
Wine & Beer: Sophia Muscat & Ugni Blanc White

Coulorful Eating
Tasting: Grapefruit Cake
Wine & Beer: Florida Orange Groves Coca Polada
These are just a few of the booths I tried.

 

[staylor]

My only advice is go hungry. Try things you've never tried before. Fore $1-$4 you don't feel too bad if you don't like it. My mom and I were able to share most everything we wanted to share. However, we both bought our own tarts and creme brulee in France. Yum!
Take your time, take in the sights, and have fun.
Staci

 

[*Flower*]

We're lucky enough to be going twice this year (both on weekends) and can't wait to see what's being offered.

A co-worker is going down on 10/10 and I asked him to bring back a F & W brochure. He'll probably forget.... but I know that it will be great!!!

I still have a few bottles of Ice Wine in my fridge from 2 years ago. It's so much more expensive here that we're being careful to make it last a while.

Last year I brought some Maple Walnut fudge back for a friend at work, and now she's addicted to it. It is sooooo smooth.

I've been saving my $1 bills since the beginning of the year, just in case. We use our charge card for the FF miles, but if the charge machines break down we'll have the cash.....

Have fun!!

 

[floridagirrl2]

DH and I attended last year and had a blast! We've both lived in Florida since we were kids and thought Disney World was pretty ho-hum. However, we were apparently sprinkled with pixie dust at the F & W Fest last year and now we can't stay away--have Florida Residents Passes and by the end of October will have made 5 or 6 trips to WDW in the last calendar year.

My main tip is to try to do at least one weekday--the lines are much shorter than on weekends.

While there's plenty of drinking going on, we only saw one overtly drunk/obnoxious person while we were there (and we only met him because he fell out of his wheelchair and my big, strong physical therapist husband helped him back up).

 

[kitalyn414]

Originally posted by DianeV
My husband recommends the free beer shows!

Actually we have done the Sam Adams one twice now and its interesting..you get about 5 or 6 different samples

He tried to get into the Beers around the World last year but it was full so you have to sign up for that one early.

can anyone expand on these? our group has some beer lovers, & these sound perfect! you have to sign up???

 

[B'rer Karen]

No, there isn't any signing up. It's first come first serve and there will be a limit. Definitely get in line early.

 

[kitalyn414]

thanks b'rer!!! so is a schedule of events like the beer tastings available when we get to the park?

sorry for all the questions, it's a 1st trip for all 4 of us in the group!!

 

[mom_rules]

Oh my goodness! i'm getting looped and hungry just reading this thread.

This will be our first F&W 10-09 to 10-18 really looking forward to it.

What about different beers (a question from DH)?

 

[B'rer Karen]

Originally posted by kitalyn414
thanks b'rer!!! so is a schedule of events like the beer tastings available when we get to the park?

sorry for all the questions, it's a 1st trip for all 4 of us in the group!!

Yes, there is a booklet you can pick up at the park entrance (and usually a few other places in the park) that will tell you about all the seminars, beer schools, cooking demonstrations, etc. for the duration of the festival.

 

[B'rer Karen]

Originally posted by mom_rules
Oh my goodness! i'm getting looped and hungry just reading this thread.

This will be our first F&W 10-09 to 10-18 really looking forward to it.

What about different beers (a question from DH)?

I'm not sure what exactly your DH wants to know but there are of course many different beers in the various booths around the world showcase. For the beer school where you taste different beers, the one I did was Sam Adams. There is also a Brewers Dinner offered a few times throughout the festival. This is an additional cost event. This features beers and different meals with beer as the main ingredient. The one I am attending is at the Rose & Crown and is sponsored by Stella Artois and Boddington's. The other one is sponsored by the Boston Beer Company with brewers from Samuel Adams. I'm pretty excited to try this event.

 

[Metallicat]

My favorite was the cheddar cheese soup and the Canadian Ice wine.
whatever you do, avoid the pizza at the Italian stand. it was the worst pizza I have ever had in my life and after taking one bite we both tossed ours in the garbage. it was like an el-cheapo frozen pizza you would get from the grocery store. YUK!

btw, does anybody know if you can buy a bottle of the Ice wine there?

 

[*Flower*]

Yes, the Inniskillin Ice Wine is available by the bottle at F & W. We've purchased bottles 2 years in a row.

We love it!!

 

[floridagirrl2]

What is Ice Wine??

 

[Jane E.]

We love going to the F&W Festival. Its always a blast. This will be our third time. We always go on a weekday. In the past, we've started with Canada. This year we may go the other way. We usually arrive at about 2pm. We love stopping to listen to Off Kilter & the British group in Great Britain. We also like MoRockin (sp?) but they won't be there when we're there this year. We walk slowly - it takes us all night to go around once. Last year we went to all the sets performed by Three Dog Night. However, every set seemed to be the same. We had a great time anyway.

Several things stand out about our experience at the festival. Australia gave a mini seminar which we had to pay extra for. We loved sampling the different wines from different areas. The people were helpful & friendly. One year we ate lobster bisque in America - it was sooooo good. The first year we went America had a key lime wine. It tasted like a margarita. We sample one food item from each booth & split it between the two of us. By the end of the day we were full.

Last year the Florida booth had delicious food but we got there right before Illuminations. I may find that booth first this time as everything looked delicious. I think we split one item but wished we had room for more!

You'll have a great time! Have fun!

 

[Metallicat]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it when the grapes are left on the vines until the frost or they are frozen, and then they are made into wine?? anyways, the wine is wonderfull tastes almost like a sweet nectar. its pretty pricey stuff. I believe a glass of it at the Canadian restaurant is something like $15.50 per glass. (which is expensive to me )

 

[*Flower*]

As I recall, F & W sold small pours for about $4. DH just loves it.

Read more about Inniskillin wine at:

http://www.inniskillin.com/en/ice/index.asp?location=icecom

It's so fruity and yummy.........