Is anyone reading this? I always feel insecure when time goes by without any comments (well, besides mom, but she doesn't count
). >.> But, well, here's some Epcot silliness.
But first, go back to my review of the 3D Dessert Party and look at the picture of the Watermelon Salsa. It's huge! Mom says it's the picture that ate Manhattan. That's like, the size of a poster! Gigantic watermelon salsa poster! Why anyone would want it, I don't know, but apparently Imageshack decided to be weird and do that to my image.
I'll fix it, er, sometime. If you see any of my other pictures do that, please let me know so I can go back and fix them.
I have no idea what day things were happening anymore. Was this Sunday? Monday? I do not know. I'm thinking Monday. Regardless, we had a beverage seminar.
Particularly, a mead seminar.
This is Bunratty Mead (they're selling it at the Ireland booth, and it's delicious- if you've never had mead, give it a try!), Bunratty Potcheen (the stuff they're putting in the coffee at the Ireland booth), and uh, O'Mara's Irish Country Cream, because apparently they needed a third beverage.
I, er, can't find the sheet where I wrote down notes at this moment, so we're going off of memory.
Mead is basically honey wine ('basically'). It's soft and sweet and quite yummy. Potcheen is the original 'Moonshine' and where the term Moonshine comes from, and is a lot harsher. They... really only put the tiniest dab of it in the Irish Chilled Coffee drink, which is sort of a shame, as it's good stuff. Definitely a bit harsh to drink, though; I had to take very small sips and rely on the wafer crackers they gave us. The Irish Country Cream was just a general delicious creamy liquor that probably has five million calories and will lead to my early death. All three were excellent, in their own ways.
As I can't find the sheet, I can't tell you the presenters name, but she was quite interesting. She kept bothering people for stories of Ireland, though, and said she wouldn't let us drink until someone told her a story.
All in all, the beverage seminars are yet another thing that's incredibly overpriced, but they're educational and fun.
(Did you know the term honeymoon comes from Mead? In ancient-ish Ireland, a couple married would have 30 days to break off the marriage, no fuss no muss- the bride and groom could return to their homes without problems or societies disapproval. So the bride and groom would be given a month's supply of mead at their wedding, in thoughts that they'd be busy enjoying the mead together and not breaking off their marriage. So, honeymoon! Or so the story goes, anyway.)
It was downpouring outside, so we decided to hang around in the Festival Center until it stopped. We got a glass of the Ghirardelli drinking chocolate and the red wine they sell, The Count Founder's Red Wine from Buena Vista Winery.
Unfortunately, I didn't start taking notes on what wine we tried and how we thought they tasted till later in the week. This one I do remember, though- the red wine was one of the better wines we found at the Food & Wine festival. Fruity, but not overly sweet. Very nice. The drinking chocolate was great as always, though it's so overpriced. It's hard to be too worked up about that when it tastes so good.
Eventually, the rain died down and we headed off to the World Showcase.
First stop was some Pineapple Fritters from Refreshment Port, which has turned in to the Dole place for the festival. This is basically just deep-fried pineapple with powdered sugar on it. Unless someone fantastically messes up with the deep frying, it would be very hard to go wrong with this- take something good, deep fry it, make it even yummier is a time honored American tradition, after all.
I enjoyed these, and liked to pretend they were a bit healthy. There was fruit involved! Real fruit! ...This is pretty unadventurous, but unless someone hates pineapple, I really can't imagine anyone disliking this. A+, two thumbs up, whatever.
Ireland's Fisherman's Pie. This was one of our favorites last year, and we found it just as good this year. There was, however, only one chunk of lobster in here, but it was a huge one (I ate it all by myself, anyway <.<). Lots of other seafood, though. I've heard complaints that some people didn't get much seafood in their version, but ours had plenty. Guess it's luck of the draw, which... is sort of disappointing, as that means I can't recommend it as fully as I could if everyone was definitely getting a lot of seafood. But our little pie was good, at least.
Perhaps the ugliest dish at the festival, the Potato & Leek Waffle with Braised Beef. It was also one of my favorites. I really could have used another one of these throughout the week, but I never quite got around to it.
This is basically a belgium waffle with pot roast style falls-apart-in-your-mouth meet tossed on it. The leeks and potatoes are almost an afterthought (I have no idea why they're ahead on the sign- it seems to me more like Braised Beef Waffle with Potatoes and Leeks). Honestly, I don't even remember the potatoes. Eh. Regardless, this was delicious. I know Belguim's dessert waffles are yummy and tempting and much more accessible, but I seriously recommending trying this, too. It's melts-in-your-mouth yumminess.
It's paired with a Leffe Brune, which tasted like beer and bitter to me. I don't remember anything else about it- after I took the five sips I promised to give each beer, I passed it on to mom. I think she enjoyed it... maybe she remembers a bit more about this then I do.
Cut in half so you can see the inside, this is the Harissa Chicken Roll from Morocco. Harissa is a hot chili sauce, but this smells a lot spicier then it tastes- the chili did not overpower the meat and vegetables. I'm not sure I could eat a lot of it in one sitting, but half of this roll was definitely fine by me.
I feel like I'm just repeating myself now. 'I liked it. It was tasty. I would recommend it.' I guess that's better then 'IT WAS SO HORRIBLE I SENT IT BACK TO THE WAITER AFTER BEING REDUCED TO SOBBING JAGS ON WHY SOMETHING SO WRONG WAS SERVED TO ME' or 'so average it's meh', but it doesn't make for interesting reading, I imagine.
Pretty margaritas from the lovely, lovely Cave! I think mom's Pineapple is on the left, with my Passion Fruit on the right, but this defies all logic, because as mom is always reminding, mom is always right (and therefore on the right).
Let me go off topic for a moment. Before I left on vacation, I was reading a thread where people argued about how strong the mixed drinks are at Epcot (it's long since slid to the back of the archives, but it was around four pages long). Some people said they're really strong, some people argued that they're weak as anything. So here's my take on it: if someone is directly making your drink, it's strong. If you're getting it from a slushy machine, it's weak.
The margarita's in Mexico are strong- the ones from inside the Cave, not the ones from the margarita stand outside (in fact, get one then get one of the others, and you can definitely taste the difference- it's like they're completely different drinks!). The alcoholic slushies in Morocco are strong. The Tipsy Ducks in Love at the Tea Stand in China are strong. Yet from the same tea stand in China, they have the Green Tea Plum Slush. I enjoy it, it's nice and refreshing with a light bit of green tea and a bit of plum and a rather strange orange color. But strong? No. I gather that's because it comes from a slushy machine rather then a cast member pouring three shots of bourbon on it (or three shots of plum wine, as the case would be for that one).
So if you're looking for a drink with a kick, you want a drink where the cast member is doing the pour. Those include all the places I mentioned, and then for the Food and Wine Festival, the Happy Lychee in China and the Brown Elephant at the Outpost in fake-Africa (as opposed to the booth of the 'Country' of Africa). Or... you want a drink that has no mixer what-so-ever and is just pure alcohol. For Food and Wine, that's the Singapore Sling in Singapore (...duh) and the Loch Lomand in Scotland. I tried all four on our vacation (though I've only reviewed the Singapore Sling so far), and I think all of them are enjoyable.
If you just want something nice and refreshing, there are a gazillion options around the World Showcase, but those are the ones I'd go to if I was looking to get my money for my alcohol/get my drunk on/have a drink where I can actually taste something besides 'mm, fruity'.
...So, pardon me for the off-topicness, sort of.
The Margaritas? They were great. I have never had a Margarita from the Cave I disliked, though, and we were there at the very beginning when they still had all that lovely food and had a flight of like, six margaritas they could give you. Even the stranger flavors, like Cucumber, are awesome. If you like margaritas (or tequila), that's the place on property to go. I suggest going at twelve, though, or you'll probably find yourself standing at the bar forced to get your drinks to go.
So. Um. I'm sorry I took so long to put this post up! I'll try and get the
next post, which was Hollywood Brown Derby Fantasmic dinner, up as soon as possible. Cheers!
)
She loves Disney just as much as I do, if not more, so we have a lot of fun together. Her only fault is her insistence on dragging me on Dinosaur, where no matter how many times I have gone on that silly ride, I always end up terrified and looking incredibly silly when the t-rex jumps out at you and you get your picture taken. But all things considered, that's a pretty small fault. 
