Friday, October 19th - Would You Still Order Tonga Toast if You Knew it Might Kill You?
Friday morning dawned hot and steamy ... again. Little did we know but this would be the last worry-free meal of the trip. Although, now that I think about it there were things that happened during this meal that I probably should have been more concerned about: wrong plates of food showing up...pressed coffee that just didn't taste right...strange containers of neon-colored "sauce" being delivered.
Yes...now that I reconsider, breakfast at the Kona just didn't have the same comfortable "welcome back" feeling that we usually get when dining there. They were definitely busy - much busier than we expected them to be at 9:30 in the morning. And there were some very cranky people demanding a table even though they hadn't made a reservation. And the poor CM manning the welcome counter was obviously new and very much afeared of the menacing computer system she was being asked to work with. Despite all this we were seated fairly quickly and settled in at our table with a sigh of relief.
Thanks anyway, but we don't need no stinkin' menus - we always order the exact same thing when we're here.
First up: A pressed pot of Kona Koffee!
This is what a French press is supposed to be used for...
Maybe it was the weather, but this koffee just didn't taste as good as I remember it tasting on previous visits. It was still better than the usual swill that Disney pawns off on us as real coffee, but it just didn't have the flavor that I've grown accustomed to with Kona Koffee.
Jay always orders a glass of Likoi juice with his koffee. The juice is a blend of passion, guava, and orange juices and he loves the stuff. I think it's vile but I'm also the one with a McDonald's addiction, so perhaps my opinion doesn't count.
Wake up sleepyhead, your pucker potion is here!
For eating Jason ordered the Tonga Toast, which is his very favorite dessert, uh I mean breakfast, ever. I usually order the French toast because other than a giant Mickey waffle, that's
my favorite vacation breakfast choice. Imagine our surprise when our waitress showed up at our table with a little pitcher of chilled, hot-pink, gelatinous goo and told us that it was something new Kona was offering with the Tonga Toast.
"This is a strawberry compote for you to dip your toast in. We've had it for about a week."
I wonder now, in light of Jay's violent stomach / intestinal struggles during the rest of our trip, if she literally meant that the pitcher of compote had been sitting in the kitchen for an entire week.
It's poison...or is it?
We both tried a little of the compote by itself and thought it was waaaaay too sweet. Once breakfast arrived Jason tried dipping his tonga toast in the compote and said he thought that it was actually pretty good - still sweet but not overpoweringly so (probably because of all the sugar that the tonga toast comes dusted in). He also said he thought the compote's strawberry flavor paired really well with the bananas stuffed inside the tonga toast.
Shortly after the arrival of the compote (or was it compost?) breakfast arrived. Or at least, my breakfast arrived. They tried to give Jason some very strange looking pancake tower that he would obviously never order.
French toast with plump snausages
I'm not complaining with this next statement ... I'm just making an observation. In years past this french toast used to come with six slices of bread rather than the four that are arranged on the plate. I can't even eat all four slices on most days, let alone six, but I just think it's interesting that the price of the breakfast has increased and the portion size has decreased.
As for the food, it was tasty - nothing to knock my socks off, but it's one of those breakfast items that's either good or not - there's rarely a middle ground with French toast. And this was good so I was pleased. The snausages were a little greasier than I prefer and I found myself wishing that I'd just ordered bacon instead. The pineapple slice was given to Jason to tide him over until his real breakfast arrived.
Drumroll please ....
Tonga Toast - breakfast of champions
What is it?
A triple by-pass on a plate.
Seriously,
what is it?
It's banana-stuffed sourdough bread, deep fried, or maybe flash fried, and then rolled in sugar. If that's not bad enough, it's served with your choice of ham, bacon, or snausage from that most magical of animals: the pig.
Jason loves this stuff. And since he only gets to eat it on vacation at WDW, who am I to deny him this artery clogging taste treat? And how can I even talk about artery clogging food with that arched eyebrow and mocking tone in my cyber-voice when I am addicted to junk food? Why just this past week I ate an entire bag of Lay's potato chips with 16 ounces of French Onion dip - all by myself. Sorry, no pictures.
One of my favorite things to do at Kona is to wander up to their kitchen counter and see what surprises they have. I have seen huge chocolate carvings of dragons in the past and lately it's been Lilo and Stitch.
I come in peace ... one piece!
It's pretty cool, but for some reason every time I look at this I think that Lilo is getting ready to bestow some kind of blessing on the restaurant crowd while her faithful disciple Stitch perches at her feet. Maybe I'm getting too irreverent for my own good in my old age.
They also carve jack-o-lanterns at the Kona for Halloween, and I took a few pictures of those as well.
And so ended breakfast. Really - just like that it ended. Poof - done.
Before I leave you this evening to go gorge on some pepper shrimp I'd like to share one final picture with you. We headed over to Downtown Disney to do some shopping once we finished breakfast and found ourselves in the store that sells all the Disney artwork.
We found a picture of one of Plankton's ancestors!!! If it hadn't cost more than our entire vacation budget we might have bought it for him, but it was too rich for our blood. We did, however, take a picture of the picture. And we felt so sneaky and wrong doing it, especially because we were laughing so loudly that it was very difficult for the store employees to ignore us.
Without further ado... for your viewing pleasure:
Admiral Cornelius S. Plankton, III
Thanks for reading!!
So much for Ron. At lease we'll have "Benda's" reviews to look forward to.
I'll tell you what, we turned right around we did! Which allowed Rhyme and Reason to Reign once more...
I took some friends to a japanese sushi place Friday night - you inspired me. We felt a little lost. What is sashimi? We ended up ordering Crunchy Shrimp Rolls and Tempura - it was all very good and beautifully presented.
part)! We are not GF budget people. I had a week at WL standard booked that I cancelled. I was almost sick and couldn't sleep after I did it--DH said quit worrying about it, you have 10 months to worry. I hope the other guests of the GF are not embarrassed of us carrying in our Kroger bags of food, snacks, beer.
Maybe I'll bring a crock pot!
)
. From reading, I understand you and Jay will not be doing another Disney trippie for a while. That's sad, but I'm lucky; I can still read the earlier ones! And Las Vegas would definitely be of interest, as well, if you feel inspired 
And neon colored clothing. 
My reasons weren't as worthy. 
So Good!
(I know I'm in the minority here) But the giant choco characters are just creepy!
