Those of you who happen to have read my first dining report may remember that last time, we booked the Fantasmic Dinner Package at Hollywood Brown Derby and ended up not going to Fantasmic after all, as we were tired and didn’t fancy standing in line and waiting for it, not even with our special tickets.
Well, what can I say – we are perfectly capable of making the same mistake twice, as that is exactly how it went down again this time!
Anyway, we were sat after only a couple of minutes' wait and actually were shown to the table next to the one we had had last time, in the upper portion of the room near the back wall. I was happy about that as I do not quite fancy the lower seating area in the middle, it seems a bit louder and more hectic to me.
For drinks, we ordered a bottle of Evian to share, and a Bud Light for each of us (no more alcohol than that – due to the Fantasmic package, this dinner was really early, at 4.25).
This was our bread basket:
Incidentally, allow me to veer off-topic here for a moment:
For us two Germans, US-american air conditioning is a wondrous thing. Be it in buses, houses, cars or any kind of buildings, you are always enveloped by refreshingly cool air as you enter - not like in Germany, where hot summer days (albeit a much rarer occurrence than, say, in Florida) usually mean that you are tortured by the heat through all your waking and working hours, up until the moment you finally fall asleep after tossing and turning in your scorching hot and stuffy bedroom.
Hardly any private homes have air-conditioning, few public buses and even fewer offices do - the one I work in doesn't, to be sure -, and even places like restaurant, cinemas and malls are not always air-conditioned (imagine a crowded mall with no air-conditioning in the middle of July …? No, don't. This is a dining report, after all
).
What never ceases to amaze me about that miraculous American air-conditioning, though, is the fact that they never seem to realize when enough is enough. I mean, why turn up the air-condition so much as to plunge the room into near-Arctic temperature lows? Never in a German winter, wrapped snugly in my several layers of winter clothes, have I felt as freezingly cold as I did sitting in an air-conditioned restaurant in the US, dressed very lightly because it was blistering hot outside and I just hadn't counted on a sudden ice age.
So here we were at the Brown Derby, the air-condition outlet was right behind me and breathing icy winds down my back, and I asked our server if there was any way to turn down the air-conditioning as I was freezing.
She said that it could not be turned down but that she heard these requests all the time, so she had the perfect solution for me: a nice fresh table-cloth. Left in the oven for a few minutes and then draped over me.
While this was an incredibly nice and sweet thing of her to do and it really helped me get warmer, I still cannot help but wonder: Why not choose a lower setting for the air-conditioning in the first place, instead of having guests turn blue with cold and caringly wrapping them in warm table linens? Is it really necessary to move from scorching heat to icy cold and back again whenever they leave or enter a building? Strange customs indeed.
(But please do not feel offended, dear Americans – rest assured that I would choose your way over visiting a crowded non-conditioned German mall in summer any day!
)
Anyway, back to the main topic – and what better way to move back onto foodie topics than with this glorious appetizer of mine:
Spicy Sashimi-grade Tuna Tartare - with Cucumber, Daikon and Pepper Salad, Avocado Wasabi Sauce, and crisp Lotus Root Chips.
By now, you probably all now that I would never turn down a tuna appetizer for anything – but I was especially glad that I had ordered this one, as I also had a good laugh about its futuristic appearance. I mean, doesn't it look like some kind of semi-organic spaceship? (Erm, anyway, it tasted wonderful!)
DH's appetizer was this:
Blue Lump Crab Cake - with Potato Crust, Green Cabbage Slaw, Cognac-Mustard Sauce, and Rémoulade.
A bit overexposed unfortunately, but quite nice as I am told.
As far as entrées go, I regret that I only have one photo for you as we both decided on the same dish:
Char-grilled Filet of Beef - with Herb-roasted mashed Potatoes, Cremini Mushrooms, Cippolini Onions, and Cabernet Wine Syrup.
We both really felt like having beef that day, and we were not let down: This was very tasty and juicy (medium a little on the rare side, just as we both like it), and once again coming with very yummy mashed potatoes.
For dessert, DH was being good again and only ordered a cup of cappuccino. I, however, craved dessert. On our last visit, I had tried the signature grapefruit cake but found it much too sweet, even though beautifully presented. This time, I did not mind sweet:
Banana-White Chocolate Toffee Tower - on Cocoa-Almond Cookie and Bananas "Foster".
This was really good – but then again, give me bananas, toffee and white chocolate and you cannot really go wrong
.
After this food fest, we were both a bit tired (not to mention over-stimulated with too many rides and too much theme park activity - didn't think that could ever happen to me but apparently it can
), so we decided to skip Fantasmic which still was a few hours away anyway, and opt for a nice quiet evening.
So, straight from the restaurant, we went for a nice long but leisurely walk along the river to the Beach Club (we had never done this before – it is a bit of a hike, true, but we took our time and watched the ducks in the river and the bunnies on the lawns, and it was really nice and peaceful).
The rest of the day, we lounged by the pool, and at night we watched the top half of the Illuminations fireworks from our hotel room balcony. It was a great way to spend an evening – but I am determined to see Fantasmic yet, some day!
Coming up next: Breakfast at Boma!
