Wednesday, October 21st - A Full Day of Food & Wine Snacking!
The plan, once we'd crawled out of bed was to hook up with X&Y and visit MGM before lunching at the Brown Derby and then escaping back to Epcot for a couple of late afternoon deminars. It was a good plan ... well thought out, logical, no WDW transportation required ... too bad half of the family had gone to MGM the day before and now wanted to visit Epcot instead. But they didn't want to visit with us because they weren't interested in food.
To be fair they'd never been to WDW together before and wanted a chance to ride the attractions and have fun on their own. We understand; Jay and I were the same way fifteen ...
did I just say fifteen??? ... years before on our first visit together. So we told them to scamper off and have fun ... we'd be eating our way around the World Showcase in case they were interested in joining up later in the day. Otherwise we'd meet them in time to get to Raglan Road for our dinner reservation that night.
Open up ... we're hungry!!!
We started the day with a stop at the Thailand booth where we shared a plate of Green Papaya Salad with Shrimpies. This was interesting ... I think the shrimp were a little overcooked but they had nice flavor. There was also too much excess liquid ... a kind of vinegar-based, very thin dressing.
A colorful start to the day.
From Thailand we next paid a visit to Australia, which I have been disappointed with in recent years. Many people spoke to us lovingly of the grilled lamb chop as well as the seared barramundi so we decided to flip a coin and ordered the Seared Barramundi with Blistered Cherry Tomatoes, Arugula, and Lemon Oil. And because I was curious about it, we also ordered a piece of Lamington.
The barramundi, which I'd certainly never tried before, was well cooked and had a mild flavor. The problem with this dish as far as we were concerned was the lemon oil, which was so liberally applied that I thought the fish might have been dusted with pledge before they served it to us.
Barramundi
As for the Lamington ... what a terrible, horrid surprise. Had I known it was going to be sprouting coconut like a hairy, miniature rubix cube I never would have ordered it. It's too bad that Australia had to go and ruin such a tasty, calorie-laden little block, because the cake itself was moist and soft and the chocolate frosting was yummy. But bleh, coconut ... no thank you very much.
Coconut horrors ...
Our wanderings eventually found us in Italy, where we decided to try the Cannelloni, the Polpettini, and a Moretti beer. We hit pay dirt in Italy! While they weren't offering anything overly exotic, the veal meatballs (meat clot!) swimming in tomato sauce were tasty and the cannelloni was fantastic - one of our favorites from the festival. The serving portion was generous and no matter how many times we visited their booth the folks in Italy were serving an awesome, cheesy, delicious cannelloni. It was so good ... I really do wish we were eating it right now.
Little bunny foo foo choked on a meat clot!
Beautiful, glorious cannelloni
Ahhhh, first beer of the day!
New Orleans was our next stop, where we ... OK, where Jay ... ordered the Spicy Cajun Crawfish and Veggie Stew and the Chicken and Andouille Gumbo. The hubba liked these just fine - they were a little too spicy for my taste and I gave up after a bite of each.
Gumbo
Crawfish & Veggie Stew
The Brewer's Collection was calling our name ... our friend Webray had told us to come back and try the sausage, officially called the Landjaeger. This was more like a summer sausage, a little greasier and saltier but oh-so-good when washed down with tasty but unknown beer.
Snausage!
Second Beer!
We stopped in England to poke around and look at the naughty things they sell in the tea shoppe!!
Uncle Joe has no shame ...
Pucker up!
Since we were so close we decided to try Ireland's cheese plate which included an Aged Irish Cheddar, Dubliner, and Ivernia cheese with brown bread and apple chutney. I never thought I'd say this about a cheese selection but ... ICK! The bread was heavy and hard as a rock - stale for sure - and all three cheeses were hard as well. It's not a very good cheese sampler that can't give you a semi-soft or soft cheese with the firm ones. We thought they were all kind of tasteless, too. So so sad.
Worst. Cheese. Plate. Ever.
The final sample of the day was from America Town where we purchased the over-priced lobster roll - something we can't get in Stinktown - along with a Sam Adams Black Lager. Having no real basis for comparison, and not being a big lobster fan, I thought this was pretty good, if a little too creamy for my taste. Jay and I always share this - he loves lobster so even at the silly $7 price tag we go ahead and order it at least once so he can enjoy it - and it tastes great with a cold beer!
lobstah roll
Third Beer!!!
As I previously mentioned, we'd had a lunch ADR for Brown Derby that we'd canceled after discussing the day with X&Y. But as the day wore on, Jay and I decided that we needed some relaxation at the pool followed by a nice long nap. So we ditched two back-to-back deminars that we'd paid in advance for ... D'OH! Meh, it was only $20 total and lemme tell you - that was a fabulous nap!
Next up ... dinner at Raglan Road and an unexpected nightcap. Thanks for reading!
I wish we could have toured with you afterwards but the princess was in need of a ride 
I wouldn't mind one of those snausages right now, either!
; we had a terrific time with you guys. And thank you for posting those pictures ... I love them! 
However, as Cardinals fans we automatically root for whichever team is playing New York ... we have a chip on our collective Stinktown shoulder about the lack of respect given to our storied franchise which is the second winningest in MLB. And perhaps the most whiniest! 
Love your trip around the World Showcase with great food and drink selections.
