It's ALL About the Food (We go to WDW to eat and drink!!) ~ October 2009 TR

[John's Mom]

Elin, thanks for live updates and great pics! Glad you and Bob had such a wonderful day.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Great foodie pics! I wish they were having a bourbon seminar while we'll be there because it sounds really interesting. Glad you guys are having such a wonderful time!

 

[ChelleinNC]

That sounds like the most perfect day

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

wow-Elin after a little bit of a rocky start (worrying about if yourBob would be able to be on the same flight...) things seems like there are going really well...

Nice upgrade on the flight...

Love that your taking photos while your there...love the way they have Epcot decorated for F & W...I think it is very disciplined of you to not purchase any souvenirs yet... I would like to think that I would be able to resist too...


I'm sorry that yourBob is having trouble with his knees but I must say that he looks pretty happy in some of those last photos...he must be having a good time...perhaps with the help of all that bourbon?

Love the updates while your there...can't wait to here more...

 

[TigerKat]

Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful day with us, especially hottie Deen.

 

[PNO4TE]

What a wonderful day you both had. So glad Bob is adjusting to the chair!

Isn't Debbie the sweetest My boys remember her as the lady who gave them the cool necklaces

I'm so glad you and Bob had such a great day!

What a wonderful day - and how special that you actually got to enjoy it together! Sometimes a departure from original plans can make other great things happening!

Elin, sounds like you both had a lovely day and I'm so glad for you! Thanks for sharing your great pictures with us.

Elin, thanks for live updates and great pics! Glad you and Bob had such a wonderful day.

Great foodie pics! I wish they were having a bourbon seminar while we'll be there because it sounds really interesting. Glad you guys are having such a wonderful time!

That sounds like the most perfect day

wow-Elin after a little bit of a rocky start (worrying about if yourBob would be able to be on the same flight...) things seems like there are going really well...

Nice upgrade on the flight...

Love that your taking photos while your there...love the way they have Epcot decorated for F & W...I think it is very disciplined of you to not purchase any souvenirs yet... I would like to think that I would be able to resist too...


I'm sorry that yourBob is having trouble with his knees but I must say that he looks pretty happy in some of those last photos...he must be having a good time...perhaps with the help of all that bourbon?

Love the updates while your there...can't wait to here more...

Thanks, everyone! I am sure the Bourbon didn't hurt Bob's mood at all! I stopped at the Welcome Center shopping area again this morning and took pictures of everything that interested me, as well as the prices of each item. I will peruse here in the villa and make up my mind later. Then I will go buy it all and have it sent home by them.

I did pick up two Beatle's shirts for Kristin and her best friend (the ones who went to Paul McCartney's concert in DC last month) and I got a F&W magnet for Bob so that we could put our itinerary on the refrigerator here in the room so he doesn't have to keep asking me what we are doing!

Patricia... I am afraid that there are no Festival brochures to pick up for you. There are none to be found and apparently there won't be any inthe future. They have weekly guides which are kind of nice... Would you like me to pick up a couple of those for you?

 

[mommykds]

Elin,

What fun! Looking forward to more pictures.

 

[Tammi67]

Hi Elin! Your trip sounds fabulous already and it's only day 3! I'm glad Bob is behaving himself and following your directions. Since we couldn't be at the F&W festival with you, myBob and I spent the weekend doing some tastings. We went to Prince Michel and Sweely wineries yesterday, and to the Fred. Wine Festival today. Unfortunately we didn't have the yummy food to go with the wines like you do! All weekend I kept saying to myBob, "I wonder what Elin and herBob are doing now?"

 

[Me&3]

Elin please let Bob know he looks just as cute in his hat too.

 

[PNO4TE]

Hi Elin! Your trip sounds fabulous already and it's only day 3! I'm glad Bob is behaving himself and following your directions. Since we couldn't be at the F&W festival with you, myBob and I spent the weekend doing some tastings. We went to Prince Michel and Sweely wineries yesterday, and to the Fred. Wine Festival today. Unfortunately we didn't have the yummy food to go with the wines like you do! All weekend I kept saying to myBob, "I wonder what Elin and herBob are doing now?"

Your weekend sounds great, Tammi! But I wish you could be here with us too. We had another good day today. I will post more later!

Elin please let Bob know he looks just as cute in his hat too.

Michele - I got him that hat at Pebble Beach 2 years ago and he has really enjoyed wearing it a lot! I did let him know. This was his reaction (as he sits here watching the Steelers)

 

[oybolshoi]

Are you going to share your merchandise pics with us so that those who are traveling later can dream of what to spend money on later in the month?

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Oh goodness! So sorry to read that Bob had an injury flare up but so happy to see that you are both making the best of it! Sounds like an absolutely delicious day at Epcot. Those braised short ribs and mashed potatoes in France were one of my faves. In additon to the cheese soup, of course.

And Jamie Deen winked at you????????????????? Well color me green with envy!

Hope you continue to have an amazing time. It is tough being home but a little easier knowing that friends are there enjoying themselves.

 

[LMO429]

subscribing

 

[PNO4TE]

Are you going to share your merchandise pics with us so that those who are traveling later can dream of what to spend money on later in the month?

I will! Wait till I post my update and then I will post the pics from that. I do't know that I took my time with them though, since I know what they look like. If they aren't good, I will take more today!

 

[PNO4TE]

This morning brought us more sunshine, but along with that came the heat and humidity. The weatherman promises “near record” temps for the rest of the week! In a way I am glad Bob has the wheel chair because I can slow the pace and he is not unhappy.

We started our day with a breakfast trip to Kouzzina. The walk over to the BoardWalk was lovely and this is what we saw on our way:

As we reached the Boardwalk itself I turned around and took this. What a great location these Epcot Resorts provide.

I was very excited to try out Cat Cora’s new restaurant and it did not disappoint. The décor is not so different from the old Spoodles restaurant (one of our all-time favorites). I had listened to a pod cast that Lou Mongello did with Cora and she assured him that it would be a totally different restaurant. I didn’t take any photos of the interior, apparently! It looks like Spoodles but more subdued. Furniture is the same, all plates are white instead of Fiestaware-like, matching flatware and white napkins have replaced the crocks of mis-matched silverware and brightly-colored linens. Appearance-wise, it is not changed much at all.

Lobby light fixture

Lobby map mural and olive press

What has changed, is what we really came for…

Sangria (yum, yum, yum, yummy, yum)

American breakfast (eggs, bacon, roasted potatoes – he said they were good - wheat toast)

Kouzzina breakfast (sweet potato hash with scrambled eggs – I don’t like poached - kalamata olive toast, bacon)

Everything was delicious. The only disappointment was the bacon! I think that with the quality of all her other ingredients, Ms. Cora needs to kick the bacon up a notch. We both agreed that what we make at home is better than what we were served. It was, to quote my younger daughter… meh. Everything else was wonderful. Good meal, decent prices, and if you drink enough of the sangria you won’t care what the meal costs or if the bacon is mediocre!

We opted to take the boat back to BC and strolled along that walkway back to our room.

It was bout 11:00 and I had a wine seminar at noon, so I left Bob reading Dan Brown’s latest and over to the Festival Welcome Center I went. It was another beautiful day in Epcot!

I stopped and got my daily glass of Caposaldo prosecco (at $3.50 a glass, this is a steal!) to drink as I waited to be seated.

Concha y Toro’s winemaker, Sebastian Lopez, loves what he does and it came forth in his presentation. He was serving three Chilean wines: Casillero del Diablo Sauvignon Blanc (retails for about $10, but costs $13 at the Center), Marques de Casa Concha Merlot (retails for about $15-20 but it was more also) and Marques de Concha Cabernet Sauvignon (retails for $15-20 but the cost was higher at the Center).

The 2008 Sauvignon Blanc was a big surprise. I would buy a case of this crisp, light wine to have on hand! It had a 13.1% alcohol content so perfect for sipping or to serve with food. The 2006 Merlot was my least favorite. It tasted a lot younger than that and I would want to try it cellared before buying any more of it. Alcohol content was 14%. The 2007 Cab was my favorite, by far. 14.8% alcohol content helped make this an amazingly BIG wine. It needs to be served with a meal. Sr. Lopez actually said something about the wine asking to have a steak. He was right. In his opinion this is the best vintage Chile has ever produced. It was wonderful.

I have heard complaints concerning the amount of the pours being served. I was not disappointed in what I am pretty sure are 1-ounce pours. At a wine bar you can pay for a 1 oz. pour to try an unfamiliar wine. Depending on the quality of the wine that pour can run you $1.60 - $8.00 or more. I paid $5 for this seminar and others paid $8. Let’s guesstimate the cost of the pours at $2.00 at your local wine bar. That would be $6 worth of wine. Add to that the knowledge imparted by the winemaker and we could top this out at well over $8 in my opinion. Again, this is just my opinion.

I thoroughly enjoyed this seminar and I am looking forward to the other four I have scheduled this week!

I stopped at the Festival Welcome Center to price out gifts to send back and on my way out I ran into a couple of old friends…

Warren Brown and Mary Myers (from my Culinary Presentation yesterday) were to have had a book signing, but their books were sold out! So they were just standing around. I stopped simply to tell them “thank you” for a great time the day before and they struck up a conversation with me! We talked about flying in and out of DC, the rigors of doing presentations and PFTS all in one week (they didn’t do that this year), about the locations of their shops and which would be easiest for me to get to, why they hadn’t chosen a locality closer to me that they had been considering and life in general! There was no one else around so they kept talking to me. A very nice CM had seen me taking a photo of them with my trusty phone and offered to take one of the three of us together. They graciously agreed.

I ran into the JAMMitors as I was leaving. They were dressed as chefs for the F&W Festival and had stoves and pots and pans to bang on. Very entertaining.

I stopped in Merry Old England on my way back to the room and picked up T-shirts for two of my favorite girls who LOVE the Beatles. While there I found these sights that brought a smile to my face:

Pretty soon I was back home!

Continued on next post...

 

[PNO4TE]

Bob and I had 8:30 reservations at Raglan Road for dinner that evening. We both agreed that we were getting hungry already and it was only 4:30. I tried to get an earlier time but there wasn’t anything available. So we canceled that reservation and sat here discussing our options. I could have gotten us into Flying Fish but we are going there later this week. There were openings at Yachtsman Steakhouse but I really didn’t want to get all dressed up. Suddenly Bob said, “Remember that bar we went to in 2007 with your brother and sister? The one where you had waaaaaaaaay too much to drink?”

(insert long story… the girls and I had been to PFTS and on the way home we got a call from my brother telling us to meet them so we did. Unbeknownst to me, my DDs ordered TWO bottles of Woop Woop Shiraz and I helped them drink it {I wasn’t counting glasses at that point}. Alcohol content on that baby is 15% so it didn’t take long for them to get their mother to be in a drunker state than she had been in DECADES. They thought it was hysterical. I thought it was a miserable thing to do to an older woman.)

I vividly remembered that lounge (as Disney calls its bars) and agreed that we could go there and I would not order the Shiraz. We figured we would get a couple of drinks, some nachos… we planned to play it by ear. Well, were we ever surprised!

Sorry, no flash on my phone!

We had an amazing meal here! This is why:

They serve their meals from the Yachtsman Steakhouse kitchen! (I took pictures but they are too dark to post If you have eaten at Yachtsman before you know what the following items look like anyway. If you haven’t, I am so very sorry!) Here is what we ordered.

Sam Adams Oktoberfest
Lobster Bisque ~ Maine Lobster and Crème Fraiche finished with Brandy
Heirloom Tomato Salad ~ Heirloom Tomatoes with Buffalo Mozzarella, Petite Basil and Aged Balsamic
Yachtsman Filet Mignon ~ 8-oz. Filet served wih Mashed Potatoes and Red Wine Sauce
Grilled Beef Sirloin ~ 8-oz. steak served with Peppercorn-Brandy Sauce and Potato Gratin with White Diamond Cheddar
Heirloom Beans ~ with Herb Butter

The meal was identical to what we could have ordered next door. The sirloin is not on the Yachtsman menu but it is exactly what Bob wanted and only cost $23!! Our meal was even delivered by the servers from Yachtsman! What a serendipitous evening! FYI – DDP is not accepted here but TIW is!

We decided to walk back to our room by Martha’s Vineyard Lounge for an after dinner drink. We like the atmosphere in this lounge.

The gentleman will have another SA Oktoberfest and, for the lady… Cockburn’s 20 Year Tawny Port

Our evening ended with the Steelers’ game (and a win!!). It was a good day.

 

[PNO4TE]

Oh goodness! So sorry to read that Bob had an injury flare up but so happy to see that you are both making the best of it! Sounds like an absolutely delicious day at Epcot. Those braised short ribs and mashed potatoes in France were one of my faves. In additon to the cheese soup, of course.

And Jamie Deen winked at you????????????????? Well color me green with envy!

Hope you continue to have an amazing time. It is tough being home but a little easier knowing that friends are there enjoying themselves.

Thanks so much, Christine! Wouldn't it be fun if we could all be here at the same time?!?

 

[KristineN]

Everything sounds fabulous Elin. I wish I was there!!!

 

[Tammi67]

Our evening ended with the Steelers’ game (and a win!!). It was a good day.

Another great day! And this was the perfect nightcap.

Enjoy your day today!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Elin, it sounds like things are going well! Love all the pics!