No Gator @ Food and Wine Fest

[Safari Steve]

I ran through Epcot for a couple of hours last night to sample a little bit of the Food and Wine Festival. On the Festival Guide, the 'Fresh from Florida' booth is listed as having gator medallions, but at the booth, the menu has said medallions replaced with Gulf Shrimp. Why the change? The supplier was unable to meet the projected demand, so they decided to avoid the headache of runnining out early. Lots of people have been asking about it, so Gator will probably be available at F&W#8.

While I was there, I rode Maelstrom, fresh from an extensive rehab. The floors of the loading/unloading areas have been replaced, with the adding of yellow/ yellow&black tile patterns in the place of ugly reflective tape, a new safety spiel has been added, better sound quality, brighter/fresh black light paint has been added, The standing polar bear has been re-upholstered, and the oil rig has new, brighter lighting. A new automatic door has been added to the theatre exit as well. Overall, the whole thing looks wonderful (I didn't notice anything "bad" about it before the rehab, but there have been noticeable improvements.)

The Andaluca display between Outpost and Germany is very well done. Upon close inspection of the windows and raised floor, I could tell that the current structure is temporary, however it is CONSIDERABLY more permenant-looking than the "South Africa Cape Region" area next door (stucco, fully dimensional walls, etc.)

Mexico: Watermellon Water.... mmmmmm.....

 

[UncleKyle]

Wow, those were some noticable improvements on Maelstrom. Sorry to hear they didn't have Gator, I'd like to try that.

 

[epcotfan]

Tastes like chicken ...seriously!

 

[Eeyore1954]

Tracy is right. My DW and I took an Everglades Safari tour a few years ago and we stopped at a restaurant that served samples of gator, conch fritters, and other "delicacies." Anyway, I tried the gator and it was pretty much like fried chicken. It was a little greasy, but overall no big diff in taste.

My DW and I have a running joke about opening a restaurant called "TLC". Most people would think it stands for Tender Loving Care, but in reality it would stand for "Tastes Like Chicken"!

 

[TigH]

I don't agree about gator tasting like chicken. We've had fried gator from several different restaurants in Central FL and it tastes sweeter than chicken. I would say it tastes a bit more like veal (the kind you get with veal parmigiana) It was also a bit spongey...yuck!

The best gator we've had so far has been from a restaurant in Islamorada (in the Keys). I wish I remembered the name of the place. Anyway, it still didn't taste like chicken, but it was yummy! Not spongey at all!

 

[Planogirl]

Hi Tig, nice to see you here.

As for gator, I tried it once and thought that it was kind of yucky. I think I'll pass on it in the future. I would like to try that shrimp though.

 

[roymccoy]

I've had rattlesnake in Oatman, Arizona. Tasted like...rattlesnake! (Yuck) Also have had Armadillo scrambled eggs (yuck) ostrich burgers (yuck) buffalo steak (not too bad) horse steak (yuck) and ferret on a stick (don't ask). I had gator on the pizza at HOB. (yuck) I've eaten pigeon (yuck) dove (not too bad) quail (not bad) antelope (don't remember) raccoon (in jerky form) shark (not good) water moccasan (sp?) caught in my grandpa's lake in Illinois (yuck) stingray (yuck)

Me and my dad have always had this "I dare you to eat this" thing going and it got a little out of hand sometimes!

Roy

Oh yeah..someone gave me a box of chocolate covered ants one time. I got hungry one day and ate them. They were crunchy and tasted like battery acid. (yuck)

 

[epcotfan]

Originally posted by roymccoy
............ ferret on a stick (don't ask).
Oh yeah..someone gave me a box of chocolate covered ants one time. I got hungry one day and ate them. They were crunchy and tasted like battery acid. (yuck)

People eat ferrets? I had two as pets and when they sadly passed away they were definitely stick ferrets. I could have played baseball with them.



You know what battery acid tastes like?

 

[roymccoy]

didn't you ever "sample" the stuff that came out of the old acid batteries in your toys?? I'm surprised I made it out of my childhood alive.

Roy

P.S. The worst thing I ever ate in all my years of eating terrible things was, surprising enough, a full packet of Arby's Horsey sauce and a packet of Arby's Sauce on an Oreo. (It was a dare in college) I still can't eat Oreo's!

 

[DisLUV]

Well I guess a resident Louisianaian should comment on Gator and its taste. First of all let me say that i love to eat fried gator and do so as mush as possible. It is the best fried. For the person who said it was spongy, i understand completely. The texture of the meat depends on 2 things: what part of the gator it came from and the age of the gator. Meat from the tail is the best and is not spongy. Meat from the legs and neck can be spongy depending on how you fillet it(cut it up). Also older gators will be more spongy and have an aftertaste (not plesant).

Now i am not an expert by anymeans but being from Lousiana does make you have to atleast know about certain things.

So anyway, go out and enjoy gator if you can find it. here we just batter it and fry it like chicken tenders. It is also pretty cheap here also.

 

[Dznefreek]

We were there today and they had Gator Medallions at the Florida booth.

 

[KNWVIKING]

.. as of Thursday they didn't have any,just shrimp & grouper.

 

[TiggerFreak]

Hi Steve,

No Gator when we were down 10-26 thru 11-1, Had the poached shrimp, nice large size shrimp, I love saying the! But they didn't season the poaching liquid, so there was almost no flavor.

Did you try the lamb chops? Deelicious First night we went late and they gve me two for the price of one beacuse it was close to closing!!!

A question on the sound system at the HM. Did it get upgraded sometime in the past year? When we rode on 10-31 at MNSSHP, I could actually hear the music in our doom buggy. Maybe I have just had buggys with bad speakers in the past?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

I've had ostrich burgers and thought they were great....tastes just like beef without the grease. Gator...had that too and didn't find it worth trying a second time. If I go to louisana I will try it since I'm sure they know how to cook it there.

I had the pan fried grouper at the florida booth (and the shrimp) man was that good.

 

[Safari Steve]

No, Mansion has not recieved any sound updates yet.

 

[d-r]

Steve, they didn't do anything to the sound when the mansion was rehabbed in August-September?

 

[Safari Steve]

We got alot of new buggies, and I think they fixed some of the speaker problems in the buggies, but there were no new speakers or system components added that I know of. (we always get new buggies, so it was more or less just more of the same, nothing new)

 

[madcoco]

Love those grouper cakes.Narcoosee's used to have a great smoked gator spread. Was sorry to see it go a few years back.

Safari Steve we look for the name tag everytime we ride but always seem to miss ya. I know the hearing can't be getting any better on this end, but the sound sure did "seem"better in HM this time around.