Monday, August 31
Lunch with an Imagineer, Brown Derby
Let’s mention the non-food part first. Melissa the imagineer had a mechanical engineering degree, and works in Attractions as an assistant project manager on technical ride systems. She worked most notably on the technical designs and specs for Soarin’ and Toy Story Mania. She even had stories about the Haunted Mansion, which is a favorite ride of hers also. I won’t wreck the experience for the interested by going into detail. If you are a Disney fanatic this is a great way to have lunch and engage in some serious chat about Disney behind the scenes.
The meal you get for signing up is a multi-course lunch at Brown Derby. The first two courses are set:
Soup course: Sweet corn bisque topped with Lump Blue Crab and a Thyme Emulsion
Nice light soup with some flavor. Gets a Lisa
Salad course: Individual Cobb Salad with Finely Chopped Greens, Turkey Breast, Bacon, Egg, Tomatoes, Crumbled Bleu Cheese, Avocado, and Cobb Salad Dressing
I asked to have the egg left off mine, as I don’t eat hard-boiled eggs at all. I believe you are supposed to mix this together. It’s good, but a bit too much of a hodgepodge for me. Like someone ran a turkey club sandwich through a woodchipper. Another Lisa
The entrée I chose is a Spice-rubbed Black Grouper with Sauteed Haricots Verts and Sunchokes, Rainbow Carrot Slaw, and Citrus Butter
This was knocking on the door of the Full Monty, but comparison to the Flying Fish made me go back to Lisa.
The dessert I chose is the Double Vanilla Bean Crème Brulee (yes another crème brulee) with Dark Chocolate Dipped Biscotti.
It was that or the grapefruit cake, which I am not a fan of. This is a Lisa crème brulee again in comparison with Flying Fish’s brulee from last night.
Beer: Fin du Monde
Nice golden ale, good with the fish and salad.
Sanaa: Cultural Tour
If you’re in the Kidani Village in late afternoon, go down to Sanaa and take the cultural tour. Sanaa is the beautiful new restaurant at the Village. There’s a story behind the way it’s laid out, and behind everything used to decorate it. Two young ladies from South Africa gave me this tour. I was the only person who came down to take it today.
And everyone wanted me to know about the view you could get from the restaurant. Here they are:
These are the girls. There is one male giraffe out there (neutered, that's why he's in with the girls) but the ladies apparently like to pose for photos.
Yes, there’s food involved. When I finished looking at the restaurant, Angela, one of the chefs, brought out a piece of naan bread and some sauces. She chose cucumber raita, mango chutney and tamarind sauce.
Angela says they make naan bread by taking a disc of dough and slapping it on the side of an incredibly hot tandoor oven. The bread cooks while stuck to the side of the oven and they use a hook to pull it off when it’s ready. This is why there is a hole in the center of your naan bread.
The mango chutney is sweet and has onion and jalapeno for a little bite. The cucumber raita tastes cool. The Tamarind sauce is spicy, but not hot. Much of the food at Sanaa, Angela says, uses flavorful spices but they don't go much for heat.
I’ll give the breads and sauces a Full Monty, I think it was almost the perfect snack. And it was free.
Not free: the Painted Lemur cocktail. Amarula and tangerine liqueur in a glass swirled with chocolate. Went well with the spicy sauce and bread. It’s hard for me to award the Full Monty to drinks, they’ve got to be something really special. Liked this just fine – it’s a good Lisa drink.
Later: California Grill
I wish Improvgal really was Alton Brown.
sounds like a sound plan to me!!
Sooo...what you're saying is that they need to make a jalapeno milkshake margarita?? To be able to really use the jalapenos properly and balance the spice? 
This is the BEST rating system ever. May the rest of us lesser mortals use it? DH and I arrive tomorrow for a week. My Birthday! Our dining list is different. If something worth noting turns up, may we use the Simpson System? (Giving total credit to it's creator, of course). Hope everything is still as much fun and we all don't get rained on tomorrow
