Two French-Canadians eat and drink around the world! COMPLETED! BONUS-US food 29oct

[auntfrannie]

The gummies were really good, they tasted of fruit juice and were not too sweet. The kids were really happy with these. They also loved the Pocky chocolate sticks. Those didn't last long in the house! I tought it was similar to pretzels dipped in chocolate, without the saltiness. Very good. The mango drink was creamy and sweet, another hit with the kids. DH also liked it but I found it too sweet. The sake is really light tasting, but it's not as good as the Hana Fuga that we had tasted. It's still interesting, though.

What is the Snow Beauty in the bottle? I dont' recall seeing that in the stores. Thanks!

 

[disneyfan61]

What is the Snow Beauty in the bottle? I dont' recall seeing that in the stores. Thanks!

I was wondering the same thing. My son Cody loves the candy from Japan.

 

[nanienamou]

It's actually a small sake bottle. It sells for 11.99 in the Japan sake shelves. I can't remember the correct vocabulary, but it's a sake with sediments in it, thus the white colour. You have to shake it, because the sediments will settle. It's a very mild sake and a good starter point for those who are scared to try it. It's a little dry and not at all fruity, however.

ETA: we had so much of fun sampling the candy/foods that we brought back for the kids. I think they prefered that then receiving actual toys/clothes souvenirs, since it was a fun family activity. Next time, I think I'm skipping most of the Mickey Mouse stuff and bringing back food/candy items from the World Showcase. I also had brought back some pumpkin juice from WWoHP and the kids loved the bottle. Only one of the 3 liked the juice, however, but he drank it all! lol!

 

[nanienamou]

Here's something I forgot to add in my last F&W post. This is the Red Stag Lemonade from Fife & Drum. It's on the cheaper side, only 6.50, so a great value. They only have it during F&W. It's a frozen lemony concoction with a strong boozy flavour which was absolutely delicious - if you like your drinks strong, that is!

 

[nanienamou]

That day, we made rope drop again at DHS, but DH was a little grumpy since he was running on an empty stomach.

After getting FP for Toy Story and riding the stand-by line, we went to Fairfax Fare for some food.

Egg and Cheese Muffin - with Bacon or Sausage $5.99. Dh choose sausage.

This is like a double breakfast sandwich, it had two omelets and two sausage patties. I had a bite and it's just like the McDonalds' breakfast sandwich, but bigger. It was ok.

We also got:

Cinnamon Roll $2.99

Mixed Fruit Cup $3.39

The fruit was fresh and tasty. No complaints here. The danish was not comparable to the ones we had seen at the Main Street Bakery but it was still good. We rarely eat those, so it was a nice treat. The dough was flaky and crunchy, a bit like a croissant and had a little butter flavor. The cinnamon was almost like a spread and the icing was not sickly sweet.

We continued touring as we had missed alot on our first day here so I wanted to make the most of this day. Just before the Lights Motors Action! show, I was getting low on energy so we stopped at Hey Howdy Hey Take Away (just in front of Toy Story Midway Mania) and got :

Wheezy's Breezy Freezy - Coke or Raspberry Lemonade $3.69. I had the lemonade.

Well, what can I say, it was hot, I was feeling it, the slushie was great! I almost drank it all while walking to the show. DH only got a taste or two. It gave me a little energy boost, which was great.

After the show, we headed for a late lunch to ABC Commissary, since I really wanted to try a dish there:
Chicken Curry - with rice $8.49

We also got a lemonade with that. When planning for this trip, I was on the fence about DHS. There is really not much that I can eat at this park, since the offerings are fried or sandwich-type and, as I said, I really need protein. So anyway, I saw this dish and thought it would be good to try, since I had made an ADR for Sci-Fi the previous DHS day.

It was not bad, I must say. A bit on the milder side - I prefer curries with a little more kick - the chicken was not dry and there was lots of it. There were no chewy bits on the meat. I was really scared about that since it is quite a turn-off for DH and me. However, the rice was unevenly cooked. There were some hard-ish grains in the mix which was kinda weird. This wasn't a huge portion, neither.

We agreed that next time, while in DHS, we were going to get an ADR to Brown Derby for their Cobb Salad one day and probably Sci-Fi, too on the second day. But in a rut, we would give this curry another chance.

Before leaving, we stopped at the Writer's Stop and got a carrot cake cookie, a sugar cookie and a giant Mickey cookie. These were for the room. The sugar cookie was for me, I munched on it for the next two days, but about 1/3 got thrown away at the airport. I tasted the carrot cake cookie. It was really good, the "cookie" part was moist and the icing was a little too sweet for me. However, DH was in awe over this one! He usually does not like carrot cake at all, but absolutely loved this one. Maybe because everything tastes better at Disney. I also didn't get to taste the Mickey cookie, but DH didn't have any complaints about it.

 

[nanienamou]

We headed back to the hotel for a rest since we were hitting Epcot that night for EMH. We arrived at the park at about 7:30 and I made a beeline for France since I hadn't tried the Grand Marnier Slushie yet.

What a great drink! Great orange taste and the hint of Grand Marnier added a sweet kick. I would get this again in a heartbeat.

There was an Off Kilter show soon, so we seated ourselves on the benches and DH went to the Canada booth and got the cheddar and beer soup and the chicken sausage with polenta.

The soup was really rich. It could almost be a dip. That little sample was enough for both of us, we are not big fans. However, it was hot outside and maybe that's not the ideal climate for soup.

DH loved the sausage. It was spicy and well-seasoned. He didn't care for the polenta, though. I'm puzzled by this choice since polenta isn't a popular dish by any means in Canada, but whatever. I, on the other hand, loved the polenta and left the sausage to DH. I was still savouring my Grand Marnier slushie anyway.

After the show, I stopped by the Greece booth and got the griddled cheese with pistachio and honey.

Now this was fantastic! The savory of the cheese, the sweetness of the honey and the crunchy saltiness of the pistachios made this dish shine for us. It was really well balanced but still rich because of that big piece of cheese. I couldn't finish it off, Dh took care of it.

We then stopped at the Dessert and Champagne booth and got the dessert trio.

The lemon chiffon was not a hit with us. It was a little too tart and it just didn't do it for us. DH liked the white chocolate mousse with the chocolate caviar but was not amazed. He did not like the tres leches so I had a taste. It was not bad but did not wow me. All in all, we wouldn't get this again.

I then made a mistake and went to the Margarita stand to order a lime margarita with a salt rim.

At this point, the richness of the soup, the greek cheese, the desserts and the alcool were really getting to me and I started feeling really queasy and unwell. I sat on a bench in Future World to take a break while DH walked around and took some pictures. I held on to my margarita and finished it about an hour later. It was still good even though it had melted but it was strong. DH was laughing at me! We were seated at the Sunshine Seasons food court and he got a dish for himself. At this point I didn't want anything to do with food, so I did not taste it, but he looooved this.

This was a seared tuna noodle salad and served cold. He ate all of this in 5 minutes.

It was time for some rides! We did Soarin', Spaceship Earth, Imagination, then started to walk towards International Gateway. DH wanted to stop in France to take some pictures of the fountain and to get something to eat for breakfast the following day since we were heading to Blizzard Beach. He also wanted another snack. This man can eat! I was impressed that he only put on 5 pounds during our trip! Gotta love all that walking! Anyway, he got a ham and cheese croissant, toasted.

Well, I must say that this was pretty good. I only had a couple of bites, since I didn't want to get sick again, but it was awesome. Crunchy croissant, rich cheese, salty ham. Delicious! DH also loved it. He got a frozen cappuccino to go with it.

This got tossed after a couple of sips. It was way to sweet for DH. He also said that there was no distinct coffee flavour in it. I didn't taste it, I was on water at this point.

We got a crème brûlée and a chocolate mousse for the next day.

These were good. DH is not too picky on his chocolate, so he loved the mousse and would get it again. He also got to finish my crème brûlée, since it was just too rich for me to eat it all, especially in the morning.

 

[swankybeth]

Great report! I am really enjoying the F & W pictures!! We leave in just 13 days and will be there for the end of the festival, we have just 2 days to try it all but I'm confident we can do it!

Looking forward to more!!

 

[nanienamou]

We ate our crème brûlée and chocolate mousse and I made coffee in the room. We headed to Blizzard Beach a couple of hours.

At 4 o'clock, we headed to Downtown Disney as we wanted to eat (yet again) at Wolfgang Puck Express - this was one of our favourite places on Disney property.

I had the roasted beet salad with goat cheese and mandarins and candied pecans.

This was sooo good. I had spotted it on the menu at the beginning of our trip, but DH never felt like sharing with me, so I hadn't ordered it. Since we were goint back home the following day, I decided to order it anyway. I managed to eat all of the toppings and even a little lettuce. It isn't a very large salad. I'm pretty sure it was dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette, very light and refreshing. DH finished the lettuce bits even though he is not a salad person.

DH got the spicy chicken pizza.

Again, this was a hit for him. He ate it all. I had a taste and the chicken was delicious, with just a hint of spiciness. The crust was thin and crispy, just like we like it.

Here's a pic of our lemonade, just because I love the ice here. I'm always munching on ice and the ice here is served as little pods, perfect for my ice-munching habit.

Here's a pic of the giant Mickey rice crispies head. 50 $. They also had a Minnie head.

Back at the hotel, we stopped at the Fountain, and I got a fat-free vanilla frozen yogourt.

This might be fat free, but it was not sugar-free! It was sickly sweet, disgusting, I had a couple of bites, DH too and it went to the trash.

On the morning of the 14th, before checking out, we headed to Fresh (at the Dolphin) for breakfast. They serve breakfast and lunch. You can get the buffet or you can order from a short menu. The buffet is a much better value. I got a yogourt parfait for 9 $ - too expensive imo.

It was just an ordinary yogourt parfait, with some cereal, in a sundae glass. It was good, but certainly not worth 9 $.

DH got the buffet. His plate:

Cheese omelet with veggies, breakfast potatoes, chocolate mini croissant, some kind of muffin (maybe corn?), bacon. First off, DH noted that there were no sausages on the buffet. He was not happy with that! I tasted the bacon and this was not the typical Disney bacon, it was thicker and crisp and good. He went back for another plate of the same things. The orange juice was included in the buffet as well as the coffee/tea. They also had some fresh fruit concentrate shooters, but we didn't try those. All in all, not a bad place, but the buffet was a better value but still a little expensive, at around 20 $, since the offerings were not numerous.

In the airplane back home, I had these:

Next time, I'm getting more of those pretzels! They were really good and salty!

Concluding thoughts in the next post.

 

[nanienamou]

I had been planning this trip for over a year and it was magnificent. We discussed staying at a Disney hotel and getting free dining for a while, but I just couldn't see how I (my stomach) would fare in that. I just physically cannot eat two big full meals each day, I need to eat small portions 5 to 6 times a day. The dining plan was just too restrictive for us and we wanted to enjoy the Food and Wine Festival to it's full extent. There was also no way I was paying deluxe prices for a Disney hotel in the Epcot area with our budget and the Dolphin (or Swan) cannot be beat for it's location and price. We already booked for next year @ 170 $

We managed to eat at the World for 12 days without indulging in too much fried food, which was awesome, since I can easily get sick on greasy food. I perused the menus far ahead of time to determine the places that would suit my dietary needs. We were not disappointed in Disney food, even though we did not do many sit-down meals. We found that the food was generally fresh, hot, and tasty. Of course, it might not always be gourmet food, but for theme park/resort fare, I think it was pretty good! And I still managed to loose 5 pounds while I was there. DH gained 5 pounds.

Next year, we are looking forward to trying some signatures: Flying Fish, Brown Derby. We also plan to return to Sci-Fi, more because of the feel than the food and DH wants to return to Il Mullino. I'm pretty sure we'll return at Yak and Yeti since Tusker House is a buffet. We'll also try Rose and Crown (if I can get an ADR - no luck this year...) and Paradiso 37. The rest will be F&W and counter service, probably WPE, Columbia Harbour House, Cosmic Rays, Sunshine Seasons... Sharing was really the way to go for us.

To save money on breakfast, we plan on doing a grocery stop and getting some cereal, milk, bagels and peanut butter for DH and yogourt, real creamer and granola for me. We also will get some juice, sodas and water. After all, gotta save some money for all that booze!

I want to thank everyone who followed this dining review, it was really fun to write and reminisce since our trip was so enjoyable. Can't wait for next year, I already set up a ticker. DH calls me the Disney geek.

 

[Linda67]

Excellent reviews, I've loved reading along

 

[jabead]

I really enjoyed reading your reviews and seeing your great pics, especially the ones from the F & W fest. Thanks for taking the time to post them.

 

[disnut1149]

Hi
I really enjoyed reading your reviews! Continued success on your weight loss. You've done great!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[rewok]

Great review! I enjoyed the F&W snack & drink pics a lot. I had so many plans for drink tasting this year, but I just can't have that many drinks, so it's nice to live them through dining reports.

P.S. I can't understand the Canada both menu either. I never had polenta here, even in restaurants, or cheddar cheese soup. Maybe they are popular in the English speaking part of Canada?

 

[nanienamou]

Thank you for reading and for leaving lovely comments!

 

[Bellamouse]

Thank you for your fantastic reviews! We just came back and ate so many of the same things - I didn't have pictures of anything though, so I am especially enjoying seeing all your pics. DH and I shared just about everything as well this trip (not what we usually do) and found, like you did, that that was really the way to go!! We were able to try so many things and it was a lot less expensive too. Also, while I didn't have surgery like you, I did have some other surgery that messed up my digestive system pretty good, so on past trips, I have not felt well at all eating so much greasy, rich stuff. This trip I had no problem at all! We will do the same from now on. SO much more enjoyable to feel well the whole vacation!

We also bought some fun snacks in Japan - we especially liked the pineapple marshmallows and mango marshmallows - they sounded so weird and intriguing we just had to have them! They were really good. We intend to buy more snacks as gifts in the future as well (instead of mugs and stuff). I did buy the F&W cookbook - I just have to make some of those dishes myself for those times when I'm jonesing for Disney

But thank you again for all the work. I was intending to do a review like this myself and when I realized how much work it would take I didn't do it. So I really appreciate all your effort. Your report came out GREAT!!!!

 

[Busymom85]

Thanks for posting your review. I enjoyed reading it and seeing the pictures. I'm going to have to go during the food festival one year.

 

[nanienamou]

Thank you all for reading and leaving comments! It was a pleasure for me to write this report. I kept a trip log in our room and filled it out each day so that I could remember what we ate. If not, I would not have been able to write such a complete report.

I have a couple of "leftover" pics from Universal so I decided to post them quickly.

A town car was waiting for us at MCO and we made a Publix stop were we found these hidden gems - we don't have them in Canada...

Spray cheese! I'm sure this is the ancestor of molecular cuisine!

And diet cherry PEPSI! OMG! I'm in heaven! DH tought this tasted like cough syrup!

the night of our arrival, we had supper at Bubba Gump @ Citywalk.

I had the alcool version of the strawberry speckled lemonade which was delicious. They also give you the souvenir glass.

We shared an apetizer and an entree:

This is Bubba's Far Out Dip - Spinach, roasted red peppers, artichokes, monterey jack cheese with homemade tortilla chips. Very good, but very rich. We were famished at this point, having not eat since the morning, so we really didn't care, lol!

This is the Shrimper's Haven - coconut shrimp, chilly shrimp, fried shrimp, tempura shrimp and fries with 3 dipping sauces. Again, very good and surprisingly, not to greasy for fried shrimp and perfectly cooked. The coconut shrimp was awesome, even DH the coconut hater loved them. My favorite was the chilly shrimp, it's peel and eat, but fresh and perfect.

Needless to say, we skipped on dessert and were stuffed!

 

[nanienamou]

That night, at the pool at RPR, I spotted the bar and waived down the server to get a little cocktail. She told me that I would be required to show me id, but that since I didn't have it with me, if I went to the room to fetch it and I was over 21, I would get a free drink. I made the rapid trek and got a free pina colada. Of course, the server was surprised I was really 30 years old, not 20! But for a free drink!

We were up early to get to WWoHP. After riding FJ and Hippogriff, getting in Ollivanders, we got a frozen butterbeer which was delicious but oh so sweet. It's like a caramel-tasting cream soda with foam on top. We shared this and had a hard time finishing it. Very good, but just so sweet.

At noon, we had lunch at Mythos. I forgot to take pics of our food, but this meal was perfect. I have a pic of the cocktail we had, an orangesicle, I think.

This was fabulous and went down really good. We actually had to fight over it. We shared the shrimp cocktail - big fresh and delicious shrimp, perfectly cooked, and the day's risotto - beef tips, with tomatoes, asparagus, mushroom and spinach. The beef was melt in your mouth tender and the demi-glace went really well with the risotto. One of the best dishes of our trip and it was only 15 $ Awesome value!

Before leaving, we had a funnel cake ice cream sundae with strawberry topping.

Well, what's not to like? It's your usual fare food, but it's a pleasure to eat. I especially liked the strawberry toping.

THat night, we had tickets for the Blue Man Group, so we had a quick drink and sushi at the Orchids Lounge. They have a sushi happy hour with a choice of 4-5 rolls @ 4$ each. These were made to order and fairly good. I remember the shrimp tempura roll.

Here is my drink, I don't recall what was in it, but it seems like a kind of Pina Colada. I know it was good!

DH got a chocolate martini which was so strong he couldn't finish it.

That night, we had a late snak of wings at Jake's American Bar at our hotel, they were not bad, but I was so tired that I forgot to take pics.

 

[nanienamou]

The next morning, we got a bagel, a croissant and a yogurt from the lounge. I didn't get a pic.

Lunch was at Finnigan's.

I had a Shark Attack cocktail. Really good, not to sweet.

We had the potato/onions straws. It's a huge order! Be prepared to share. And it's typical fried food, so I didn't have much of this. Wouldn't order it again.

We also got the Finnigan version of the Cobb salad with dressing on the side. This was fabulous. It was hot outside, so this was refreshing and fresh and had lots of protein. Plus, they add the dutch egg on top. The little beet-apple slaw was delicious.

We brought back the leftovers to the room and had them later. It was alot of food!

We had tickets for Halloween Horror Night that evening and stopped by Richter's Burgers for a quick snack. We chose this place because of the cool soda fountains. You have litteraly like a 100 choices of soda! So cool!

I had diet blueberry cola. I don't remember DH's selection. We also had the generic chicken salad. Good and did the job.

That night, we also got the signature Halloween punch in a lighted souvenir glass. It was good and fruity, but packed a punch!

We finished the evening with the infamous turkey leg.

Not bad, loved the smoked taste! Lots of protein on that!

 

[nanienamou]

The next morning (October 1st), we had a bagel and a yogourt at the lounge again before heading to the parks.

Mid-morning, we stopped at the Beverly Hills Boulangerie and DH got and espresso brownie which he found quite good. I didn't taste it.

WE had a late lunch at Margaritaville! I had one of them delicious Big Ritas.

Be warned, these are STRONG, especially if you've been in the extreme heat for most of the day and are a little dehydrated. I had a little difficulty getting up afterwards!

We shared the steak nachos

This is the biggest plate of nachos I've ever seen! They were really good, with bits of steak, not ground meat and lots of cheese. These could be the best nachos I've ever had. But alas, 1/2 the plate was wasted, it was just too big.

That night, at the pool, we had a bloody mary and the crab gaspacho, but I didn't bring the camera. DH did not like the sweetness of the bloody mary, so I drank it. It's not bad, but I wouldn't order another one. The gaspacho was yummy, full of crab meat, but served in a martini glass, so a tiny portion and quite expensive at 10-12 $.

And that concludes our Universal food.