Tuesday, October 20th - Meeting Friends for Fish and Lots of F&W Snacking That No One Really Remembers
We were late. Those bright, seductive nacho hats distracted us ...
me ... and Jay and I ended up being about twenty minutes late for our agreed upon meet with our dear friend Cass and her hubby Rob and their precious little baby girl Kira. Thank goodness they are such good people ... they already had a table overlooking the lagoon and they didn't mind that Jay and I showed up tipsy with friends. And Kira was a sweetheart ... don't tell anyone but she totally stole crusty Aunt Bendy's shriveled black heart.
The Jasons went off to nab some fish and chips and beers and returned with this:
This is what they're serving???
I was never so disappointed in fish and chips in all my life. I remembered these from two years ago as a generous serving size bursting with lightly breaded cod-fish goodness. These were over-cooked, slightly dry, and barely big enough for two hogs like Jay and me to share. Here's what they looked like two years ago just so you can understand our chagrin ...
Fish & Chips circa 2007
I'm bringing out the Mouth of Sauron right now to ensure that the Disney Dining Dictator hears what I have to say.
"Hey, Disney Dining Dude! Why must you keep messing with the good stuff? We may have been buzzing when we ate this but we were clear-headed enough to recognize that you have shrunk the portion size in an insidious effort to force us to buy another. You have done enough. STEP. AWAY. FROM. THE. FOOD. NOW."
Ahem.
Would you believe that prior to this evening that I had never tried a black and tan? I think this was Guinness and Bass Ale ... it was just as tasty as Chelsi and Jason had told me it would be.
Black & Tan
Here are some pictures of our friends ... all lovely people that we've meet through the DIS!
Kira and Cass and Rob's elbow
Chelsi & Jason
Eventually we parted ways - Kira was getting restless and we were looking for more food to soak up some of the afternoon's ditch drinking. We went back to France because it was close and they almost always have great food. First up we ordered another one of our festival favorites:
Braised Short Ribs in Cabernet with Mashed Taters
And then we got some dessert .. and more booze!
Parisien Cosmo and Creme Brulee
I don't recall much about the creme brulee but I do remember thinking that the slushie fruit punch cosmo was far too sweet for its own good ... or mine.
Our wandering ways then took us to Morocco where the others ordered some baklava, which I don't eat due to the pistachios or whatever the nut of choice is!
Baklava
We stopped in New Orleans to mock the Sazzarazz and purchase some bread pudding. I think we may have even drunkenly offered to buy their bottle of Makers Mark but the CM wasn't biting. I thought last year's bread pudding was better but that's probably because this was near the end of the evening and it was a little too crisp and a little gummy. BLECH
Praline Bread Pudding with Bourbon Caramel Sauce
We stopped for the Sister Sledge concert, already in progress, which tells you just how much Jay and I had had to drink because that's totally not our thing, even though I know the words to almost all of their songs.

We had a ton of fun, though, standing in the back of America Gardens Theatre. Jason bought Chelsi a really cool night-time Halloween skull that glowed in the dark - they promptly named him Sledge in honor of the concert. And my Jason and I looked rather aimlessly for Guest X & Y, calling for DY-LON and GINNI-FLOWER in honor of the previous day's culinary deminar that featured chefs with funny names. We didn't find them, but we also didn't look very hard.
We followed the concert with a visit to Germany, where I don't remember this at all:
Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce
And Sledge ordered a naughty sausage on a pretzel roll ... YUM!
Another Nuerunberger Sausage? Don't mind if I do!
The photopass people thought we looked alcoholically photogenic!
All trips to WDW should be this much fun!
Once Illuminations was over we slowly made our way out of the park, where we decided that we needed more food. Coming soon ... a late night snack at the ESPN Club!