Well, since I'm now back from my Larded and Loaded, West Coast Style, I can snark up the final installment! Let the snarkfest commence!
Wednesday, October 24th - The Final Tour of Epcot's Food & Wine Festival.
In the interests of expediency and because I'm running out of time before going out of town this weekend, I'm just going to post pictures of our final day, with commentary as needed. You'll notice that I was looking a bit rough when we first started out ... for some reason neither one of us were feeling very well as the morning first began. We both perked up later in the day, though, which is always a good thing!
I look like that at the end of all my trips. Be glad I didn't take a photo of myself from yesterday!
First up ... Ireland, where we finally got our hands on some of that Frozen Bailey's Irish Coffee. It was good, but I don't think it was $7.00 worth of good. I know ... don't expect a bargain at F&W but every now and then even my free and easy spendiness has a butt pucker over price.
Bad posture is often improved by alcoholic coffee...
I can't criticize you on posture. I'm always hunched over. But I wouldn't buy a $7 cup of coffee! Even Starbucks doesn't charge that much, but still, they don't put booze in it. Hmm. I wonder if Starbucks would charge $10 if they had the liquor license for booze.
Now Morocco ... hmmm, these pictures are not in the correct digestive order. Oh well, who really cares in what order we ate at this point?
We split the Mint Ice Tea and a Bastilla, which is the original pita pocket! You can't see it in this picture but there is lots of spicy meat tucked into the pita and I found it surprisingly good...once I made it past the onions.
What's in your pocket?
That looks really tasty! My pockets are empty. I just got back from a trip, for gosh sakes! Sheesh.
Our friends in Italy were serving a mean Lasagna al Forno which we washed down with some Peroni. Jay and I really enjoyed this lasagna which was uber-creamy, and we also thought the portion size was pretty generous.
I wonder why our lasagna at home never tastes this good?
Ooh, lasagna! I never get it at the festival because it's not "special" enough. But I had lasagna yesterday that I was dreaming about for about three years.
(I'll get to that soon enough.)
Then it was back to Germany where we purchased another pretzel dog without that nasty sour cabbage and some apple strudel. And the beer ... thanks to a very enthusiastic if somewhat weird man who came up to us out of nowhere ... was a new one for us: Spaten Optimator. Two thumbs up tasty for this beer!! I also have to give two thumbs up to the strudel which is not something I typically enjoy. This was excellent and the vanilla sauce drizzled across the top was yummy!
Spaten Optimator sounds like it came straight out of Star Trek! "I'm sorry Captain, but if we don't get the Spaten Optimator levels to reduce, the warp core is going to blow!" But if it's a good beer, all the better!
Somehow we ended up in New Zealand for more dessert ... that kiwi and custard roll was da bombe! And at $1.50 perhaps one of the few actual bargains of the festival and pretty damn good to eat, too!
The kiwi's in the custard!
I never tried that because I've heard it was pretty bland and tasteless. Sort of like my personality.
But if they have the kiwi custard thing again this year, I will force myself to try it, prejudice or no.
After enjoying a chilled, fruity custard roll it only makes sense to follow it up with the soup that everyone raves about in Canada ... Cheddah Cheese-ah Soup-ah. I'm sure this probably doesn't compare with the soup served at Le Cellier, although I wouldn't know since we've never eaten a real meal there, but we thought it was good. Probably a bit too salty and actually a bit more like potato soup than I would have expected, but still not a bad taste treat all things considered.
It's not bad...
I think the Canada soup served at the festival is pretty much on par with the restaurant, but only if you go first thing at 11am. The longer it sits out, the more it thickens and congeals, and it's not so pleasant. But I do think it's too salty. Don't they realize they shouldn't add that much salt because BACON is salty enough? Do they? Harumph!
On our second go-round we found ourselves in Argentina where Jay purchased himself a plate of Grilled Beef with Chimichurri Sauce. I see the beef but I'm not so sure about the sauce ... that looks like mashed potatoes to me! I cannot comment either way ... this was all Jay's dish and he said it was very good but that it could have been a lot spicier.
Do you see sauce???
Oh that looks awesome. Wish I had tried it. I'm having Plate Envy. Drool.
And now it's time for quite possibly one of my favorite, most over-priced festival booths:
Champagne!!!
The only food item available here is chocolate truffles ... a duo of them this year, as opposed to the trio last year that masqueraded as a duo. A dark chocolate truffle and a milk chocolate truffle ... the only thing that would have been better is if they'd been bigger so that we could have shared them a little easier. But they were tasty so I'll forgive them their wee size.
As you may have deduced (you smart readers you!) the only beverage available for purchase here is champagne!! Over-priced champagne ranging from $7.50 - $10.50 per plastic glass ... who can say no to that??? I believe I chose the Rose' Imperial which was good but could not compare with Rosa Regale at all. Those truffles could have produced an out-of-body experience if they'd been served up with some Rosa, but it was not among the choices.
These bubbles tickle my nose and these chocolates tickle my tastebuds...
I totally passed the Champagne booth the entire trip. I never usually do that. I wish they would bring back the port and flourless chocolate cake they had a few years ago. That rocked.
We walked off the chocolate by trekking all the way to South Africa, where Jay purchased some Bobotie with Mango Chutney and a sample of Bored Doe. I don't know what bobotie is supposed to be ... I keep wanting to type bowtie! Jay said this would have been way too spicy for me to enjoy and I took his word for it because I didn't find this appealing in the least. I liked the name of the wine, though - I thought it was funny!
This looks colorful...
I'm pretty sure they serve bobotie in Boma, but I never tried it. But if you like Bored Doe, I'm sure you'd like the Goats Do Roam that I had gotten as a gift (as I mentioned in my trip report). It's by the same winery, and who doesn't like a winery with a good way around a pun?
And then we finally had a chance to try the fish and chips at the Yorkshire County Fish Shop. Every time we pass by this place the most wonderful aromas are always emanating from their kitchen but we're usually on our way to eat somewhere else. Not this time! Jay and I split an order of fish and chips and a Harp beer while watching the naval ducks patrol the World Showcase Lagoon. We thought the fish was excellent - lightly battered cod served piping hot on a bed of french fries ... oops, sorry ... chips. And they're even better with cheap yellow mustard!!
Fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads ...
Better with malt vinegar. Just sayin'.
At this point Jay had had enough, but I was still feeling a gnawing in the gut. So we stopped by the Boulangiere Patissere where I bought a cheese plate and some madeleines and croissants to nibble on in the room.
For something like $7.00, you get three sizable hunks of cheese with a few grapes and a mini-baguette. These cheeses were pretty standard and relatively bland, probably to appeal to a broad swath of tastes, but I liked them all, especially that creamy cheese that I smeared all over the bread.
It's a carpet picnic!
Chocolate chip madelines .... yum!
That cheese looks like a pretty good value. You would have enjoyed the cheese I had over the weekend.
And that my friends marks the end of our ten day adventure at WDW. While things didn't turn out as planned we still had a good time and we learned a lot of things at the F&W events that we attended and have since developed a fondness for Scotch that we blame entirely on Epcot. I'd just like to thank all of you who've taken the time to follow along with Jay and me as we re-lived the food love - it's been a pleasure sharing this with you.
Jay needs a smoking jacket and a pipe to make the picture complete!
Feel free to stop on by the blog any time - all are welcome! We'll be posting reviews and stories from Las Vegas once we get back, and there's a weekend stay at the Boca Raton Resort in August that will be chronicled there as well.
And this fall, Jay and I will be headed back to WDW and have some new restaurants lined up, including Portobello's Yacht Club, Citricos, Blue Zoo, and breakfast at Boma.
Until then, everyone be well, and thanks again for reading, posting, laughing, eye-rolling, and anything else that may apply.
I can't wait to check the Las Vegas blog entries! I need to upload my own pics and get cracking on my own report! Thanks for all the food porn.
But I'm really sorry that we won't be there at the same time this year!
All for the bargian basement price of 
). But I enjoyed this one so much, I look forward to reading all the other ones you have done!!
