Sunday, October 21st - A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That ...
This update is going to seem a little odd ... and I don't mean odd in the usual way. I mean that it's kind of jumbled with stuff, but that's how the day ended and who am I to present it any differently? Life is messy and sometimes so is vacation - grab your Swiffer and let's see what happens!
Once we finished with our Scotch and Food Pairing at the Rose and Crown, Jay and I wandered over to the Festival Welcome Center to do some shopping. Sadly two of the items I wanted most - the Utopias and the light blue F&W ladies t-shirt - were gone, but I did manage to find a couple of other things on which to spend money.
We picked up the Festival cookbook, always a must-buy souvenir for us, and we purchased the F&W commemorative trading pin set. Jay and I are not big Disney pin traders but now and then if we see something that we really like or that we're amused by we'll go ahead and buy it. Although these items are not edible (our cat disagrees but that's a story for another time) I thought you all might like to see them.
You don't really expect me to cook anything, do you?
Pins in the box...
Pins outta the box...
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of these pins; they're very detailed and gold plated on the front and back. They're also much heavier than the usual pins used for trading and have the special commemorative die-cast stamp on the back with the year and the set number and all that happy crappy.
I'm going to share some other shopping finds with you because while I was taking these pictures Jay was sleeping off his scotch tasting (his tummy started bothering him again so we went back to the villa to let him rest). I bought a terrific new scrapbook to add to the other three that I've never even managed to start on yet. I keep getting distracted by these trip reports ... I'm not really a very artistic, hands-on kind of person anyway. And there is no polite way I can describe how my scrapbooks end up looking, so I'm just not going to - trust me when I say that I'll offend someone if I try to mock myself this time, so you're all going to have to take me at my word that I just suck at the artsie craftie stuff.
Someone could do great things with this scrapbook...too bad I'm not that someone!
We found another "Star Wars" pin that we couldn't resist... I only wish now that I'd bought a second one so that I could have sent it to Jusmom's son. I'm not sure if she's even reading at this point, but a few months back she very kindly sent us an HRC pin from her city and I've been trying to think of a good way to repay her thoughtfulness. Too bad I came up with such a great idea six months after our trip.
A Spudtrooper!!!
I bought a sweatshirt for Grimace to thank her for watching our fur-baby while we were cavorting in WDW without him. The funny thing about Grimace is that she loves WDW clothing... as long as she doesn't have to pay for it. She wears the stuff to work and when people ask her if she has just recently returned from a visit she can say, "Oh, no, I haven't been to WDW. My daughter and her husband like to go there and they brought this back for me - wasn't that sweet?"
Does that make
your gag-reflex kick in, because it sure does mine!
Grimmie's present
And then I bought me a present to make up for losing out on the Utopias and the spiffy blue F&W shirt that suddenly was only available in Barbie-doll sizes - I may be somewhat slender but I cannot wear a petite-small ... I like large because cotton shrinks. I found this t-shirt in the Beach Club Marketplace and it really caught my eye because it was so different and just looked fun.
T-shirt front...
T-shirt back...
Benda models her fabulous new digs!
By this point in the late afternoon / early evening I was growing hungry.
What???
You heard me right; I was hungry.
Jay had the same reaction. But since he was feeling better again after his nap he agreed to go wander the World Showcase with me and watch me eat. It turned out that the on-again, off-again rain showers kept the crowds to a minimum that night, so we had a very enjoyable time just wandering around the slightly damp World Showcase up through Illuminations.
My first food-stop of the evening was France, which has always been one of my favorite F&W booths. This year their offerings included the following:
Beverages: Hobnob Chardonnay; Chateau Haut-Mondain Bordeaux Rouge; Sparkling Pomegranate Kir; Bernard Sparr Extrem Riesling; and St. Germain Red Cocktail.
Food: Escargot Persillade en Brioche; Quiche au Fromage de Chevre; and Coupe de Sorbets Champagne, Framboise, and Chocolat Blanc.
Since I was just eating for myself on this visit, I ordered the Quiche and a St. Germain Red Cocktail.
Key-shhhhhh and Booooooo-zzzzzzzz
Compared with previous years offerings, this little guy just didn't measure up. For one thing, there were far too many sun-dried tomatoes baked into this wee little quiche. I'm not a big fan of crunchy tomatoes ... I like mine fresh, right off the vine if possible ... but I can live with one or two dried tomatoes for reasons of color or texture. Having said that, when every bite I took yielded a big, honking, dried out tomato corpse I was less than pleased. To quote me, "I don't like stuff in my food."
And ... just some friendly advice to our friends in France: think about changing your freaking menu next year. You hail from the land of delicious foodstuffs ... dazzle us with your bounty!! Every year you guys give us snails, and some kind of quiche or tart, and a dessert - GET OUT OF YOUR RUT!!
Ahem.
Where was I? Ah, yes ... the St. Germain Cocktail. I had no idea what this was supposed to be; the menu board read as follows: St.Germain Liquor, Vodka and Cranberry Juice. It seemed like a pretty safe bet, and France has always been reliable when it comes to interesting and tasty booze, so I ordered one ... for $7.00.
Thankfully this was a terrific drink! Similar to a cosmo but with a more ... subtle and almost flowery taste. Once we got home I began doing research on St. Germain Liquor and this is what I found...
St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur is 20% abv. / 40 proof artisinal French liqueur that is available in limited quantities. It is a very light pale gold color and a medium light body. The aroma is primarily flowers and fruit, think of pears and lychee, and is lightly sweet and tart on the nose. The taste is like the aroma, very floral plus lychee's and pears, with maybe the slightest hint of citrus. It has a refreshing tartness up front, a mild sweetness in the middle, with a long finish of the two combined. The taste and smell stays with you for quite a while, filling you mouth and nose with its luscious fruit and flowers.
- credit to Slashfood -
This is the first liqueur to be made from Elderflowers, which grow in the French Alps and can only be harvested for a very brief time each spring. Apparently this was just released in the US during 2007. I liked it so much that I ordered a bottle from an on-line distributor - no one in Stinktown carries this stuff ... what a surprise. Here's a picture because the bottle is just too cool!
It looks like perfume
- credit to Slashfood -
From France we eventually ended up in Germany, and now that I think about it from an historical perspective this makes a lot of sense ...
And no offense is meant to either Germans or French ... it's just that your respective countries spent so much time invading each other (pre-and-post unification) during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries that my statement struck me as somewhat funny. I know my sense of humor is a little weird at times and now I'm starting to ramble so you know what ... be offended or not, it's your choice but I meant no harm and I laugh with no malice.
Germany was offering the following:
Beverages: SA Prum Blue Slate Riesling Kabinett; SA Prum Essence Riesling; SA Prum Riesling-Spatlese; Schloss Reinhartshausen Riesling; Becks; and Becks Octoberfest.
Food: Spaetzle with Creamy Mushroom Ragout; Debriziner Sausage with Sauerkraut in a Pretzel Roll; and Apple Strudel.
You know what Germany? We get it. You're famous for your rieslings. But stop trying to shove it down our throats already. I don't want sweet wine with my mini hot dog ... I want beer.
What's that?
Your tap is tapped?
No beer?
Upon being revived by my loving husband, I proceeded to further insult the Germans by ordering a bottle of Dasani and a pretzel roll without sauerkraut.
I had to stop the CM three times from piling sauerkraut on that little sausage. I know I probably gave all Americans a bad name by refusing to eat this German taste-treat in its original presentation, but I loathe cabbage in all its insidious forms and glamours.
This pretzel roll is nekkid!!!
Yummy! I liked this just fine ... and I think I may have ended up further horrifying the Germans by smearing brown mustard all over it once the picture was snapped. But overall I thought it was quite tasty - the sausage was actually somewhat spicy, it had a good flavor, and was very juicy - and the pretzel roll was soft and slightly salty. A perfect combination that could have only been improved upon with a nice draught of beer.
Once I finished this little snack the skies opened up and we took cover in the German shopping district. I always heave a sigh over the Steinbach Nutcrackers and I found one that I really wanted but just couldn't bring myself to shell out $300 for it. The interesting thing is that I found that same nutcracker at a store here at home this past Christmas and it was the exact same price! I guess WDW doesn't always mark-up ... or else this store had marked down ...
Anyway, we eventually found ourselves in Arrabis Brothers which is another favorite of mine. And Jay bought me a little birthday present ... it's so pretty!
Sparkly!
Now that's a close up! How many moles did you count?
Prior to the start of Illuminations we went back to France and pillaged the Boulangerie Patisserie for in-room snacks and breakfast provisions. The result being ...
Chocolate eclairs!!!
Assorted French Bakery Goodness...
By the way, those pills are mine; don't ask for them at the Bakery because you'll only confuse the CMs. I take lots of pills every day to keep my intestines in decent working order; and then I take more pills to keep my joints in decent working order; and then I take special multi-vitamins to make up for all the food my system doesn't really absorb. Huh, doesn't
absorb look funny? There are certain words that don't look right even when they're spelled correctly and that's one of them. Eh ... English is a weird language.
Thus ends the day ... how unsatisfied are you?
The next review will be lunch at the ESPN Club and then more snacking around the World Showcase. Thanks as always for reading - I love you guys!
I would so love to hear you say mingin and then see the reaction
. You pronounce it "ming-in" and can be used in place of vile or disgusting ie "did you see Britney with no knicker on....aye, she's pure (totally) mingin" or "were you out at the weekend? Oh yeh I was mingin' drunk". You can also describe someone as a minger "did you see Kirsteen's new boyfriend...total minger!!" Hope you enjoyed your cross cultural language lesson for the day
...this is really mad you'll have to let me know how you get on freeking out your colleagues.
Was the bracelet a surprise while you were doing something else?
