BriarRosie
<font color=blue>Creator of Tag Fairy Haiku:<br>Cl
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2002
- Messages
- 11,164
Thursday, October 16th continued...
After shopping at the Festival Center (been there, done that, bought the tshirt), I headed back to the room to change for my special wine dinner at Jiko. Thank heaven for Beach Club Villas!
Before I start, I wanted to mention that this isn't a festival sponsored dinner. Actually, Jiko would normally not have a special wine dinner in the middle of the month. The Jiko staff have a wine dinner they present once a month, usually on the first Thursday of every month, with very limited seating. They've already established a group of regulars who attend, and there's often a wait list.
When I found out there was going to be an extra dinner during the week I'd be at WDW for the festival, I immediately tried to call the contact at Jiko to find out...it was booked solid. So I put myself on the wait list. I discovered I was third in line (being solo behind a couple that I knew was first on the list). I asked Brenda if she wanted to be on the wait list, and put her down tentatively. (She later took herself off to book dinner at Citrico's.)
Well, no more than a few days before my trip, I received a call from the Jiko contact saying there was an opening. You bet I still want to attend! Woohoo! And that morning, before the Kitchen Conversations, I got another call saying there was another opening if Brenda and Jay wanted to go. (They were happy keeping their ADR.)
So off I went to kill time at Animal Kingdom Lodge waiting to check in. There's a little viewing area off the lobby, right behind the DVC desk that hosted the pre-dinner reception. In hindsight, I should have taken a photo of the room, but it was a nice place to have a glass of wine and some great HOOVER DOOVERS.
(Don't know the story behind hoover doovers? Read it here in this installment of my Disneyland food and wine festival food report.)
As you check in, a server will offer a nice glass of wine, and other servers will ply you with all sorts of hoover doover goodness. I proceeded to spill some of the rosé on me while trying to adjust the strap on the bag I was wearing. Luckily, the dress is indestructible, and the wine could not be seen. Crisis averted! Oh, the wine was Mulderbosch Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé 2008. (Light and fruity, does not stain Lori's indestructible dress. Heh)
There was a station set up with Chef Brett cooking oysters.
You can see him loading the cooked oysters onto half shells for presentation. There was another line chef adding the final touches:
Fanny Bay Oysters with American Sturgeon Caviar and Horseradish-dill Cream
You can see that she put a dollop of cream on it, and she would top that with the tiny dollop of the caviar. Those suckers were tasty l'il poppers. May I have 17 more, please?!?
Butternut Squash with Sage, Carmelized Onion and Brebicet Tartlet
Brebicet is a sheep's milk cheese from France, and it's soft and creamy. Combine it with the squash and onions, and you've got another addictive item. I think this was my favorite of the three hoover doovers. What's the last hoover doover?
Serrano Ham, Black Mission Fig and Manchego in Phyllo
You could put anything in phyllo and make me happy, basically. I love Manchego cheese, which is also a sheep's milk cheese (from Spain), but firmer. Combine it with sweet figs and savory ham, and you have another winner. I knew I had to cut back on these noshables until dinner or I'd turn into Mr. Creosote from "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life". I just better turn down any wafer-thin mints if I'm offered one at the end of the dinner.
We were led into the Wine Room, a private dining room inside Jiko. There were enough seats at 4 long tables for about 30 people. At each place setting, we saw the night's menu.
Each chef signed their name next to the dish they created. How cool!
Representatives from the Mulderbosch and Thelema wineries from South Africa would share anecdotes or in some cases, small poems. Here's one of them:
O Saaqi, free us from the façade of this world.
Bring Wine -- barrels full !
Our eyes see too straight --
Straight past the truth !
Pretty deep. The guy had a lot of small poems like this.
First up:
Grilled Swordfish with Braised Brussel Sprouts and Smoked Red Curry Sauce
Paired with Thelema Sauvignon Blanc 2007
Best.Swordfish.Ever. I swear, the seasonings on this fish just popped in my mouth. It had a lot going on, and I think it's got to be the best fish I've ever had. This fish is the reason I felt the swordfish at the Party for the Senses (two days later) was "just ok". I'm not a big fan of brussels sprouts, but I found them to be a nice compliment to the fish.
The next dish was a soup course. Now if you've eaten at Jiko before, you'll notice they like to bring out a dish with "stuff" on the bottom and pour soup on top of said "stuff". Tonight was no exception.
Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Cinnamon Crème Fraiche
Paired with Thelema Chardonnay 2007
Here you can see the cinnamon crème fraiche, but there were pumpkin seeds and bits o' pumpkin in the bottom of this dish. Here's what it looked like after they poured the soup:
I love soup. And this soup sounded like something I would really enjoy and order if offered at Jiko. While I thought it was more on the savory side, rather than a soup version of the taste of pumpkin pie, I thought the soup was just wonderful...until you get to the pumpkin seeds. I found the seeds more of a distraction, and I didn't like the chewiness of them in the soup. This soup would have rated "amazing" if those pesky pumpkin seeds weren't there. And I love roasted pumpkin seeds on their own. The Chardonnay was "just ok" for me, but it did pair ok with the soup.
Tanglewood Chicken Doro Wat
Paired with Mulderbosch Shiraz 2004
I'm sure you're all asking, "Doro Wat??" It's an Ethopian dish. When you look online, it's a chicken stew with red pepper sauce. Chef David, who is from Africa, took the dish and tweaked it to bring a variety of spices together in a way that was completely foreign to me. At first, I wasn't sure I even LIKED it, but I continued eating it, and I guess you could say it "grew on me". The hard-boiled egg on top was a nice touch. I believe it's probably a quail egg. And because it had a lot of spice blends going on, the Shiraz worked well with this dish.
Next, we had a palate cleanser, but I couldn't do the color of it justice.
Cucumber and Key Lime Shooter
I'll just call it the Antifreeze Shooter. Ok, be warned. I'm about to channel Brenda (oybolshoi) because I have a "Simpsons" reference I cannot let slip away. When I think of antifreeze, I remember a comment made in an episode where Bart was held hostage in a winery as a French exchange student, where he discovered the bad guys used antifreeze to age wine faster.
And the quote is:
"Whenever my faith in God is shaken, I think of the miracle of antifreeze."
I suppose I should share my thoughts about this shooter. I tasted a little of the key lime first, but the aftertaste was all cucumber. It did its job of palate cleansing. I probably would have prefered a sorbet.
Smoked Sea Salt and Black Pepper Crusted Lamb with Potato Gnocchi and Blackberry Demi Glace
Paired with Thelema "The Mint" Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
Before I talk about this dish, I want to share something cool we learned about the wine. The Thelema rep told us that there's an underlying mint taste to this wine, and yes, there was. You'd normally think, "Ewww", but it was subtle and not a bad thing at all. They were trying to figure out what would cause the mint flavor. After some deliberation, they realized that eucalyptus trees were the factor. Wherever there were masses of eucalyptus trees used as a wind-break for the vines growing nearby, the wine made with those grapes carried that mint flavor. Cool, huh?
The lamb itself might appear a bit on the rare side, but it was really done perfectly. The sweet sauce really added to the flavor, and obviously the mint background in the wine would go with the lamb. And how about those fancy Tater Tots? I actually made a comment to my tablemates that they were the best fancy Tater Tots I ever had. I think they all agreed with me.
Cheeses: Maytag Blue with White Wine Poached Pear; Herbed Laura Chanel Soft Goat Cheese on Crostini; Crisp Le Biquet with Tomato Coulis
Paired with Mulderbosch Chenin Blanc 2007
Cheese, glorious cheese! Yum! Although I tend to shy away from blue cheeses except really tiny amounts, I really liked this with the pear. The goat cheese in the middle was my favorite. But the Le Biquet, a soft, unripened goat's milk cheese gets special honors for being part of a fried cheese offering. This was a fancy version of fried cheese with marinara. Who doesn't like fried cheese? Again, the wine was good with this.
Dry Farm Pear and Jonalicious Apple Napoleon with Pear Sorbet and Spiced Caramel Sauce
Paired with Mulderbosch "Late Harvest" Sauvignon Blanc 2006
The dessert was refreshing and light, probably the best way to end such a big meal. Loved the flavors of everything together, and the wine was definitely a good choice to match with dessert.
Overall, this had to be one of the most memorable meals I've had at WDW, and I really was impressed by the talents and creativity of the Jiko kitchen staff. We all gave them a hearty round of applause when they came out to take their bows.
While I am done reviewing the actual dinner, I wanted to share my experience with the other guests. I already knew one couple at the dinner, a local Orlando couple I had known for 10 years. I always make dinner plans with them if they're available. While I was there, I ran into another local couple I met through past food and wine events. I saw them last year at the Signature Dinner we went to at California Grill, and I was also seated with them for an Exquisite Evening at Epcot event a few years ago.
So it was nice seeing familiar faces. I also met some really nice new faces who immediately adopted me for the evening. These people, the "regulars" who come to these dinners, think nothing of leaving their table and switching places with a person from another table for a course or two. That's what I call a crowd comfortable with itself and others.
One particular couple who had been to these dinners before were not local, but from Kansas. I talked to "M" and "S" throughout the night (names hidden to protect privacy if wanted), and I discovered that "S", the woman who sat next to me throughout dinner, was SamSam here on the DIS! For most of the night, we didn't realize this, so it was fun to meet a DISer I've recognized.
I had a couple of wine lanyards with me to give to the long time friends of mine, and SamSam admired them. I overheard her mention she was also staying at Beach Club Villas, so I told her I had a couple of extras I would be glad to give to her and her DH. So I wrote down my room number and phone number, handing the slip of paper to her. I told her to give me a call when she got back to BCV, when she said, "I don't believe this."
Here's where it gets spooky. SamSam tells me the room number she and her DH are in. They are staying at the 1 BR unit next to me. Not only that, I'm actually in the Studio "lockoff" connecting their room and mine.
How freaky is THAT?
We had to share this discovery with the rest of the group, and everyone had a good chuckle over that. Before I forget, I wanted to share one last picture of the "truffle forest" placed on the table after dessert:
Needless to say, those truffles didn't last long! Truffles were neither wafer-thin, nor a mint, so I was definitely safe from imminent danger of exploding.
Even after all that wine, we spent maybe 5 hours at dinner! Even after dinner, we spent time still chatting with others from other tables.
My friends gave me a ride back to BCV, and within 15 minutes, there was a knock on the connecting door between SamSam's room and mine. I gave them the wine lanyards. SamSam and her DH "M" opened a bottle of wine they wanted me to try, and we sat in their living room chatting away for another good hour and a half or more! No matter what SamSam thinks, I didn't think she appeared to be tipsy. I was surprised that I didn't feel tipsy after all that wine, but dinner was set at a very easy pace.
The entire night was such a great experience, that I regret that I probably wouldn't be able to attend another of these special wine dinners, mostly because I cannot go to WDW the first Thursday of any month. I understand why they are so popular and hard to get into. If I was able to do another one of these dinners, I would do so in a heartbeat.
Next up: Noshing Around the World
After shopping at the Festival Center (been there, done that, bought the tshirt), I headed back to the room to change for my special wine dinner at Jiko. Thank heaven for Beach Club Villas!
Before I start, I wanted to mention that this isn't a festival sponsored dinner. Actually, Jiko would normally not have a special wine dinner in the middle of the month. The Jiko staff have a wine dinner they present once a month, usually on the first Thursday of every month, with very limited seating. They've already established a group of regulars who attend, and there's often a wait list.
When I found out there was going to be an extra dinner during the week I'd be at WDW for the festival, I immediately tried to call the contact at Jiko to find out...it was booked solid. So I put myself on the wait list. I discovered I was third in line (being solo behind a couple that I knew was first on the list). I asked Brenda if she wanted to be on the wait list, and put her down tentatively. (She later took herself off to book dinner at Citrico's.)
Well, no more than a few days before my trip, I received a call from the Jiko contact saying there was an opening. You bet I still want to attend! Woohoo! And that morning, before the Kitchen Conversations, I got another call saying there was another opening if Brenda and Jay wanted to go. (They were happy keeping their ADR.)
So off I went to kill time at Animal Kingdom Lodge waiting to check in. There's a little viewing area off the lobby, right behind the DVC desk that hosted the pre-dinner reception. In hindsight, I should have taken a photo of the room, but it was a nice place to have a glass of wine and some great HOOVER DOOVERS.
(Don't know the story behind hoover doovers? Read it here in this installment of my Disneyland food and wine festival food report.)As you check in, a server will offer a nice glass of wine, and other servers will ply you with all sorts of hoover doover goodness. I proceeded to spill some of the rosé on me while trying to adjust the strap on the bag I was wearing. Luckily, the dress is indestructible, and the wine could not be seen. Crisis averted! Oh, the wine was Mulderbosch Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé 2008. (Light and fruity, does not stain Lori's indestructible dress. Heh)
There was a station set up with Chef Brett cooking oysters.
You can see him loading the cooked oysters onto half shells for presentation. There was another line chef adding the final touches:
Fanny Bay Oysters with American Sturgeon Caviar and Horseradish-dill Cream
You can see that she put a dollop of cream on it, and she would top that with the tiny dollop of the caviar. Those suckers were tasty l'il poppers. May I have 17 more, please?!?
Butternut Squash with Sage, Carmelized Onion and Brebicet Tartlet
Brebicet is a sheep's milk cheese from France, and it's soft and creamy. Combine it with the squash and onions, and you've got another addictive item. I think this was my favorite of the three hoover doovers. What's the last hoover doover?
Serrano Ham, Black Mission Fig and Manchego in Phyllo
You could put anything in phyllo and make me happy, basically. I love Manchego cheese, which is also a sheep's milk cheese (from Spain), but firmer. Combine it with sweet figs and savory ham, and you have another winner. I knew I had to cut back on these noshables until dinner or I'd turn into Mr. Creosote from "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life". I just better turn down any wafer-thin mints if I'm offered one at the end of the dinner.
We were led into the Wine Room, a private dining room inside Jiko. There were enough seats at 4 long tables for about 30 people. At each place setting, we saw the night's menu.
Each chef signed their name next to the dish they created. How cool!
Representatives from the Mulderbosch and Thelema wineries from South Africa would share anecdotes or in some cases, small poems. Here's one of them:
O Saaqi, free us from the façade of this world.
Bring Wine -- barrels full !
Our eyes see too straight --
Straight past the truth !
Pretty deep. The guy had a lot of small poems like this.
First up:
Grilled Swordfish with Braised Brussel Sprouts and Smoked Red Curry Sauce
Paired with Thelema Sauvignon Blanc 2007
Best.Swordfish.Ever. I swear, the seasonings on this fish just popped in my mouth. It had a lot going on, and I think it's got to be the best fish I've ever had. This fish is the reason I felt the swordfish at the Party for the Senses (two days later) was "just ok". I'm not a big fan of brussels sprouts, but I found them to be a nice compliment to the fish.
The next dish was a soup course. Now if you've eaten at Jiko before, you'll notice they like to bring out a dish with "stuff" on the bottom and pour soup on top of said "stuff". Tonight was no exception.
Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Cinnamon Crème Fraiche
Paired with Thelema Chardonnay 2007
Here you can see the cinnamon crème fraiche, but there were pumpkin seeds and bits o' pumpkin in the bottom of this dish. Here's what it looked like after they poured the soup:
I love soup. And this soup sounded like something I would really enjoy and order if offered at Jiko. While I thought it was more on the savory side, rather than a soup version of the taste of pumpkin pie, I thought the soup was just wonderful...until you get to the pumpkin seeds. I found the seeds more of a distraction, and I didn't like the chewiness of them in the soup. This soup would have rated "amazing" if those pesky pumpkin seeds weren't there. And I love roasted pumpkin seeds on their own. The Chardonnay was "just ok" for me, but it did pair ok with the soup.
Tanglewood Chicken Doro Wat
Paired with Mulderbosch Shiraz 2004
I'm sure you're all asking, "Doro Wat??" It's an Ethopian dish. When you look online, it's a chicken stew with red pepper sauce. Chef David, who is from Africa, took the dish and tweaked it to bring a variety of spices together in a way that was completely foreign to me. At first, I wasn't sure I even LIKED it, but I continued eating it, and I guess you could say it "grew on me". The hard-boiled egg on top was a nice touch. I believe it's probably a quail egg. And because it had a lot of spice blends going on, the Shiraz worked well with this dish.
Next, we had a palate cleanser, but I couldn't do the color of it justice.
Cucumber and Key Lime Shooter
I'll just call it the Antifreeze Shooter. Ok, be warned. I'm about to channel Brenda (oybolshoi) because I have a "Simpsons" reference I cannot let slip away. When I think of antifreeze, I remember a comment made in an episode where Bart was held hostage in a winery as a French exchange student, where he discovered the bad guys used antifreeze to age wine faster.
And the quote is:
"Whenever my faith in God is shaken, I think of the miracle of antifreeze."
I suppose I should share my thoughts about this shooter. I tasted a little of the key lime first, but the aftertaste was all cucumber. It did its job of palate cleansing. I probably would have prefered a sorbet.
Smoked Sea Salt and Black Pepper Crusted Lamb with Potato Gnocchi and Blackberry Demi Glace
Paired with Thelema "The Mint" Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
Before I talk about this dish, I want to share something cool we learned about the wine. The Thelema rep told us that there's an underlying mint taste to this wine, and yes, there was. You'd normally think, "Ewww", but it was subtle and not a bad thing at all. They were trying to figure out what would cause the mint flavor. After some deliberation, they realized that eucalyptus trees were the factor. Wherever there were masses of eucalyptus trees used as a wind-break for the vines growing nearby, the wine made with those grapes carried that mint flavor. Cool, huh?
The lamb itself might appear a bit on the rare side, but it was really done perfectly. The sweet sauce really added to the flavor, and obviously the mint background in the wine would go with the lamb. And how about those fancy Tater Tots? I actually made a comment to my tablemates that they were the best fancy Tater Tots I ever had.
I think they all agreed with me.Cheeses: Maytag Blue with White Wine Poached Pear; Herbed Laura Chanel Soft Goat Cheese on Crostini; Crisp Le Biquet with Tomato Coulis
Paired with Mulderbosch Chenin Blanc 2007
Cheese, glorious cheese! Yum! Although I tend to shy away from blue cheeses except really tiny amounts, I really liked this with the pear. The goat cheese in the middle was my favorite. But the Le Biquet, a soft, unripened goat's milk cheese gets special honors for being part of a fried cheese offering. This was a fancy version of fried cheese with marinara. Who doesn't like fried cheese? Again, the wine was good with this.
Dry Farm Pear and Jonalicious Apple Napoleon with Pear Sorbet and Spiced Caramel Sauce
Paired with Mulderbosch "Late Harvest" Sauvignon Blanc 2006
The dessert was refreshing and light, probably the best way to end such a big meal. Loved the flavors of everything together, and the wine was definitely a good choice to match with dessert.
Overall, this had to be one of the most memorable meals I've had at WDW, and I really was impressed by the talents and creativity of the Jiko kitchen staff. We all gave them a hearty round of applause when they came out to take their bows.
While I am done reviewing the actual dinner, I wanted to share my experience with the other guests. I already knew one couple at the dinner, a local Orlando couple I had known for 10 years. I always make dinner plans with them if they're available. While I was there, I ran into another local couple I met through past food and wine events. I saw them last year at the Signature Dinner we went to at California Grill, and I was also seated with them for an Exquisite Evening at Epcot event a few years ago.
So it was nice seeing familiar faces. I also met some really nice new faces who immediately adopted me for the evening. These people, the "regulars" who come to these dinners, think nothing of leaving their table and switching places with a person from another table for a course or two. That's what I call a crowd comfortable with itself and others.
One particular couple who had been to these dinners before were not local, but from Kansas. I talked to "M" and "S" throughout the night (names hidden to protect privacy if wanted), and I discovered that "S", the woman who sat next to me throughout dinner, was SamSam here on the DIS! For most of the night, we didn't realize this, so it was fun to meet a DISer I've recognized.
I had a couple of wine lanyards with me to give to the long time friends of mine, and SamSam admired them. I overheard her mention she was also staying at Beach Club Villas, so I told her I had a couple of extras I would be glad to give to her and her DH. So I wrote down my room number and phone number, handing the slip of paper to her. I told her to give me a call when she got back to BCV, when she said, "I don't believe this."
Here's where it gets spooky. SamSam tells me the room number she and her DH are in. They are staying at the 1 BR unit next to me. Not only that, I'm actually in the Studio "lockoff" connecting their room and mine.
How freaky is THAT?
We had to share this discovery with the rest of the group, and everyone had a good chuckle over that. Before I forget, I wanted to share one last picture of the "truffle forest" placed on the table after dessert:
Needless to say, those truffles didn't last long! Truffles were neither wafer-thin, nor a mint, so I was definitely safe from imminent danger of exploding.
Even after all that wine, we spent maybe 5 hours at dinner! Even after dinner, we spent time still chatting with others from other tables.
My friends gave me a ride back to BCV, and within 15 minutes, there was a knock on the connecting door between SamSam's room and mine. I gave them the wine lanyards. SamSam and her DH "M" opened a bottle of wine they wanted me to try, and we sat in their living room chatting away for another good hour and a half or more! No matter what SamSam thinks, I didn't think she appeared to be tipsy. I was surprised that I didn't feel tipsy after all that wine, but dinner was set at a very easy pace.
The entire night was such a great experience, that I regret that I probably wouldn't be able to attend another of these special wine dinners, mostly because I cannot go to WDW the first Thursday of any month. I understand why they are so popular and hard to get into. If I was able to do another one of these dinners, I would do so in a heartbeat.
Next up: Noshing Around the World
I think the only thing I wouldn't have enjoyed trying would be the oysters ( never did care for them ) but I'd at least try the horseradish sauce and the caviar. Looks like you got a great amount of food and wine and good company to make for a magical evening. 
But not so much that I didn't enjoy your company.
If you listen real carefully you can still hear it baaaaring....
