Hungry Are The Damned! 10/15/07-10/25/07 - COMPLETED W/LOTS OF PICS!!!

[oybolshoi]

Hi everybody!

I'd like to say welcome back to those of you who may be old friends jumping on board for our final food report of the year (or next year for that matter) and I'd like to offer a warm hiya to anyone who's brave enough to take this ride with me for the first time. Jay and I are harmless ... we just like to eat and drink and laugh ... a lot.

We've just returned home from 10 days at Walt Disney World where we ate and drank, but sadly, not to excess. I had planned a trip that would render both the hubby and me fat with food, but fate was against us (I blame Norway).

Who are we?

There's me - Oybolshoi (Brenda) - turned 38 on this trip and am, believe it or not, still something of a picky eater. I have all kinds of interesting chronic health issues - Crohns Disease, Endometriosis, Arthritis - that make daily life and travel with me a real joy. My philosophy is "just take the pain pill with an alcoholic beverage and you'll feel better that much sooner." I plan all the vacations because it's what gets me through the daily grind of real life working for the Soulless Dominions of Finance. I'm a frustrated wanna-be writer with a goofy sense of humor and a penchant for blowing every vacation budget the hubby has ever given me.

And there's the DH - Jason - the most patiently impatient person I've ever met ... laid back to the point of coma and possessed of a wicked sense of humor which includes a real gift for mimicry. His philosophy is "life is too short to eat bad food or drink bad booze" followed closely by "if the wife's happy ... everyone's happy." I'm not sure why he puts up with me but I'm lucky to have him.


Here's us ... because it's always nice to put a face with a name.

So ... where did we eat / drink and where will these reviews take us? Click on the link to go directly to the review, or take your time and read through everything ... the choice is yours!

Beaches & Cream
A Little Food & Wine and a lot of Kimonos
F&W Festival, Take I
F&W Festival, Take I, Part II
Hurricane Hannah's & Jiko
Crystal Palace Character Breakfast, Part I
Crystal Palace Character Breakfast, Part II
A Birthday Interlude
Casey's: The Counter Service of Choice for Ducks
Boardwalk Bakery Cakewalk
Bistro Paris, Part I
Bistro Paris, Part II
Yacht Club Gacky, uh, Galley
Afternoon Tea - Gardenview Lounge
Oodles of Spoodles
Kona Cafe - Breakfast
Le Cellier Food & Wine Pairing
Yacht & Beach Club In-Room Dining, Take I
Party for the Senseless, Part I
Party for the Senseless, Part II
A Senseless Summary
The SpongeBob Incident & Lunch at Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre
F&W Festival: Scotch & Food Pairing at Rose & Crown Pub
A Wee Bit of Food & Wine and Some Other Random Stuff
ESPN Club
More Food & Wine Festival Tastings and Beach & Yacht Club In-Room Dining, Take II
Even more Food & Wine ... with some Segway
Narcoossee's
Multiple Food & Wine Booths, Yorkshire County Fish Shop, and Boulangerie Patissiere...

Come read our food blog if you're interested in seeing what we get up to outside of WDW!

GASTROPODTRAVELS


Sadly, due to illness on the part of the hubby, we didn't eat or drink as much as we planned at the festival booths, although we made a pretty fair attempt. We also canceled ADRS at Raglan Road, Flying Fish, California Grill, and Rose and Crown as well as a Food and Wine Pairing at Coral Reef ... you can only imagine how much it twisted my guts to cancel these ressies after months of salivating over menus at my desk during endless lunches of chicken noodle soup and raw carrot sticks, but there was no point in going if the man wasn't going to be able to enjoy himself.

Poor hubba ... he was such a good sport even though he didn't feel well, while I seem to have developed a tapeworm because I couldn't stop eating.

Stay tuned for Day 1, which will include Beaches and Cream, Kimonos, and the first of many visits to the Food & Wine Festival!!!

 

[sandys]

Yea! They're back!!! Always love your reports. I leave on Monday for the "World" and I will look forward to reading about your adventures when I return. You always seem to have so much fun-hope we have as good a time as you did.

 

[PinkPrincessZ]

Yay! I'm so glad you are writing another dining report! My mom and I were there October 12 - 17 and we saw you and Jason in Italy!! I was much too worried about appearing to be a Stalker to approach you but, let me tell you, it made my day to see a real life DIS celeb - especially one who's writing style I truly admire.

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[jeminni]

Glad to see you back. Sorry to hear Jay wasn't feeling well, hope he's doing better now. I hope you get some of this dining report up before I leave for the World in 5 days .

 

[susieq76]

Yippee!!!!

 

[Ms. Heimlich]

Woooo HOO! Brenda's doing another food report!

I am looking forward to it!

Ms. H

 

[Hedy]

Can't wait!

 

[WDW Fan]

Yeah - Another Brenda TR Report!!!! I can't wait to hear all about your food adventures! Sorry to hear Jay wasn't feeling well for part of it though Hurry back!

 

[ncsjodi]

Welcome Home, Brenda & Jay!

Can't wait to see the pics and hear about your adventures! Did Plankton make the trip this year? My DH tells me that he's coming with us on our December trip, but I know nothing...nothing...

Jodi

 

[oybolshoi]

Yea! They're back!!! Always love your reports. I leave on Monday for the "World" and I will look forward to reading about your adventures when I return. You always seem to have so much fun-hope we have as good a time as you did.

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a lovely trip with no stomach bugs and terrific weather.

Yay! I'm so glad you are writing another dining report! My mom and I were there October 12 - 17 and we saw you and Jason in Italy!! I was much too worried about appearing to be a Stalker to approach you but, let me tell you, it made my day to see a real life DIS celeb - especially one who's writing style I truly admire.

Can't wait to hear more!

You make me blush - thanks for the compliment and thanks for reading. I do wish you'd said hello - there were a few people during our trip who approached us (I think Jay was a little taken aback the first time it happened but by the end of the trip he was ready to offer autographs ... ) and it was really nice to meet fellow DISers. Many of them told me they don't usually post so it would have really been nice to meet someone with a user name!

Lemme think ... Italy ... that must have been on the 16th which means you may have seen us posing Plankton with some moscato!

Glad to see you back. Sorry to hear Jay wasn't feeling well, hope he's doing better now. I hope you get some of this dining report up before I leave for the World in 5 days .

Jay's feeling much better now, thanks. I will probably have B&C up tonight and hopefully Kimonos tomorrow - depends on how quickly I can get the pictures to upload. Hope you have a great trip and thanks for reading!

Yippee!!!!

I love food, dont you?

Woooo HOO! Brenda's doing another food report!

I am looking forward to it!

Ms. H

Ms. H! Thanks for stopping in - I saw that you and your hubby shared a No Way Jose ... just like Jay and me. That dessert is so good ... I wish I was eating it right now.

Can't wait!

Hi Hedy! Thanks for stopping by.

Yeah - Another Brenda TR Report!!!! I can't wait to hear all about your food adventures! Sorry to hear Jay wasn't feeling well for part of it though Hurry back!

Thanks for reading! We managed to have a pretty good time despite Jay's under-the-weatherness. And I am amazed at the amount of food I was able to put away on my own this time. I'm still hungry and we've been home since Thursday afternoon. It's crazy!

Welcome Home, Brenda & Jay!

Can't wait to see the pics and hear about your adventures! Did Plankton make the trip this year? My DH tells me that he's coming with us on our December trip, but I know nothing...nothing...

Jodi

Hi Jodi! Plankton did come with us again on this trip, but then he left to take a cruise with some friends ... or did he??? Stay tuned to find out for sure!

And now he's coming with you to WDW in December? Hmmmmm ... he does get around these days.

Thanks again everyone for joining in - Beaches and Cream should be coming up shortly!

 

[MissMagnolia]

Looking forward to the reviews...since I am in the planning stages for our next trip (on the Deluxe DP, I think) any input will be appreciated.

 

[J.C.&ALI'SMOM]

Wooooooo! I'm here for the long haul again... well Brenda, lets go

 

[kbmaggs]

Hey Brenda,
I'm glad to see that you are back home and, more importantly, writing about your most recent trip! Don't be alarmed, but I could be considered a "Brenda groupie".
Your writing style and incredible sense of humor make your posts irresistable. My husband and I are also Disney lovers, and we love reading about your adventures. Keep the reports comin', girlfriend!!!

 

[FirstMagic]

I'm so excited to see you are back and posting reviews of your latest trip! I read your other WDW reports (I admit it... I lurked ), but now must come out and tell you what a big fan I am.

Thanks so much for writing and letting us foodies relive the experience!

 

[wdwthanksgiving]

woohoo! welcome back -we've been burning the kitchen light each night for you just waiting for your safe return to your keyboard ---start typing sister!!!

 

[oybolshoi]

Monday, October 15th - Let us Celebrate Vacation with the Joining of Chocolate to Peanut Butter

In years past when we've arrived at the Beach Club Villas for the start of an October vacation, Jason and I have always hoofed it over to Epcot to immediately begin devouring the F&W Festival booths scattered around the World Showcase. This year, thanks to an obscenely early flight from St. Louis which meant that we were out of bed by 3AM, we decided to approach the first day of our vacation in a more relaxed manner.

Beaches and Cream sounded like the perfect way to ease into our 10-day visit and thanks to good luck and good timing we were standing at the podium by 12PM on Monday afternoon. The wait for a table was about 20 minutes, but there were plenty of seats at the counter. A friendly reminder to those of you who may not be familiar with Beaches and Cream - all tables and counter seats are first-come, first-serve - the restaurant does not accept ADRs.

Jay and I opted for the counter - we hadn't had anything to eat since stopping at Starbucks at 5:15AM on the way to our gate at the airport and our stomachs were beginning to digest themselves.

I'm so hungry I could eat at Arby's ...

We both ordered a single cheeseburger with french fries ... I stuck with American cheese while Jay decided to be all exotic and order his with cheddar cheese.

Plain old normal American cheeseburger - pillbox not included

Cheddah Cheese Burgah

The food was tasty and hot - typical grilled burgers and crispy fries. From our seats at the counter we could see all the action at the grill and the ice cream fountain - nothing was cooked or prepared until an order was received. So while it's reasonable to assume that our burgers were pre-formed beef patties pulled from the refrigerator, they weren't sitting under a heat lamp getting served up to the first person who ordered one. I'd estimate that it took about 15 minutes from the time we placed our order until we received our burgers, which is not bad at all considering that it was lunchtime.

Hunger may have played a part, but Jay and I agreed that these were mighty fine cheeseburgers. And the fries were great - crispy but not crunchy with hot pulpy potato goodness oozing forth with each bite.

**Brenda's Dining Tip #68: Dip your fries in cheap yellow mustard instead of catsup / ketchup. It's like eating a glob of sunshine with every mouthful.**

Eeeeeeew! "A glob of sunshine with every mouthful"??? Where did that come from? Who replaced my drink with Pollyanna Punch?

Anyway, be sure to save room for dessert when eating at Beaches and Cream, because that's what the place is really known for. And the portions are huge, so I highly recommend splitting dessert with the one you love unless you are having a Moe-ment, defined as: "Hey; no sharing!"

Jason and I ordered a No Way Jose, which we had tried last year. In a word, it's fabulous! Chocolate and vanilla ice cream smothered with peanut butter and hot fudge toppings...covered with whipped cream, peanut butter and chocolate morsels, and crowned with a single bright red cherry all for the bargain price of eight dollars.

No Way Jose ... mid construction

Look... you can see my reflection in the mirror. This unflattering picture proves without a doubt that I am not a vampire, despite what people may think due to my pre-vacation pallor, the pointiness of my incisors, and my recent cravings for rare beef. Besides, everyone knows that the undead don't eat ice cream.

We were also able to watch the construction of Mickey Sundaes...aren't they cute?

Mickey Sundae on Monday!

And now, the close-up you've all been waiting for...The International Ice Cream Association's Centerfold for the month of October:

The No Way Jose!!!

Our waitress noticed that I was taking pictures of food and asked if we wanted to have our picture taken with the dessert before we destroyed it.

Dessert cleavage ... I swear it's unintentional

The camera loves Jay and it mocks me ... I wish I could say that I'm one of those people who look better in person than in a picture, but I'm just as silly looking in real life as several people here on the DISboards can actually attest to now.

What can I tell you about this dessert? It's superb. The peanut butter topping is creamy and rich while the hot fudge is thick and chocolatey - it's like eating a melted Reese's Peanut Butter Cup with ice cream. I think if I had a single suggestion to make it would be that the dessert be served entirely with vanilla ice cream rather than with chocolate and vanilla. I found that the vanilla ice cream complemented the other two flavors much better than the chocolate ice cream, which seemed to be warring with the hot fudge. But despite that, this remains hands-down the best ice cream dessert we've had on WDW property. If you like peanut butter and chocolate this is the choice for you!

Stay tuned for a brief report on Epcot's F&W Festival followed by a daring sushi dinner at Kimonos. We want Fugu!!!

Thanks for reading!

 

[Hedy]

Mmmm...ice cream porn...I really have to get to B&C over my December trip.

 

[NC Belle]

Let us Celebrate Vacation with the Joining of Chocolate to Peanut Butter

I love the start of the food offerings. I'm tempted to go to Friendly's while in PA for a similiar sundae to the No Way Jose to hold me over until next month.

 

[granmaz]

Looking forward to more!!!

 

[Minniespal]

Looking forward to this