We finally made it to food and wine festival, live!

[mama03]

Continue day one:

We had a noon seminar so we rushed over to festival center.

This is one pic of entryway.

The wine and spirit shop

this is what the tickets look like for both the food and wine seminars.

You can pick them up 15 minutes before presentation time. I found that just showing up just before the start was fine. Yes, there was a line but it moved quickly and there really is not a bad seat. I do have to confess it is a little cramped as I am not one who likes to rub up against strangers, at least not until my second glass of wine.
this is the sampling,(govnar, may I have some more please).I still feel they could have added a little more at the wine seminars.

The owner

The Schwieger vineyards demo was given by the owners. I wish I took a picture of mrs. schwieger, she really was nice and seemed to be enjoying herself. They discussed their land, family, and wines they produce. I do remember that the chardonnay was not oaky, but for 37.oo plus dollars mmm dont know if I would purchase retail. Overall I feel the demonstrations were worth $5.00 but not $8.00. Thanks to these boards I learned that DVC owners received a discount if purchased early enough.
I must confess my hubby accidentally took home this days info sheets, so I will give a more detailed description when I get home.
Onto the food demo at 1:00pm:
CHOCOLATE!!!!!!
This was presented by moonstruck chocolate.
This is the recipe, a little complicated, hey who am I kidding allot complicated!

The chocolatier:

The wine sample, no I am not kidding can you believe the size of that plastic wine cup?!

mmm the chocolate torte:

this torte was very good and the presentation was well done. The chef went through every stage and with the tvs you could see how the sugar caramelized, etc.
Well when this ended it was about 2:00 pm and we had our tequila demo at 3:00 so we went to get a few more bites of food.

The grilled pork skewer (NASTY!) very dry.

shrimp stew with coconut and lime(this was good had a nice flavor)

spicy tuna roll, good!

Sukiyaki beef roll, hubby really like this one, I thought it was just okay.

Okay this is starting to be a pattern, looked at the clock, better hurry to Mexico.
Our 3:00 pm tasting was at the new Tequila bar in the mexican pavilion. There are lots of names but I just call it the cave. I read another dis'rs report so I knew kind of what to expect. Our presentation went a little differently.
The entryway, check-in:

The bar:

a mural on the wall depicting how tequila is made:

This demonstration was $35.00. Do I think it was worth it, NO. I will explain.
Tasting samples:

we sat down and the samples were already on the table. The speaker was fantastic, very energetic and informative. I kept telling myself I know there are supposed to be food samples to go along with the tasting. Our speaker just kept going on and we were smelling and tasting the tequila. I must confess it is dark inside so I couldnt really see the color difference too much. Well I along with most finished the samples of tequila, then they bring out the food?!

The food was absolutely delish! Very fresh, well plated everything.
overall I felt the presentation was okay just not organized well yet and not worth $35.00 . Now I will confess this became our new favorite place in Epcot. After the presentation everybody got up to leave but me and my hubby. We just looked at each other and asked if we could stay. Why of course!! We perused the menu and man let me tell you they have some fabulous margaritas and tapas. We decided to get the Durazano:

the LaCava:

both very good. By now we were feeling pretty good so we decided we had better go back to the boardwalk since we knew our room was ready. we got a standard view studio 45 points.
The long dreaded hallway:
Will finish later gotta go enjoy my vacation!...

 

[DenLo]

Wow, thanks for the report. We plan to go to our first Epcot Food and Wine Festival in 2010. After reading some of the trips reports I felt a little lost. But you have made me feel more comfortable about to expect and have given us ideas for what to do next year.

Great photos too! I have to admit although it hasn't been that long since breakfast those photos are making me hungry and thirsty.

 

[corpcomp]

One more lover of that cake here!!! OMG it was soooooo good.

One other goodie I tried and absolutely loved was the Praline Bread Pudding. Not only was it delicious, but the serving size, in my opinion, was three times larger than what other vendors were dishing out. Really; it was hefty!!

OK where do you get the lava cake????

 

[Ms. WDW]

OK where do you get the lava cake????

The Lava Cake was at Ireland and just incase you want to try the Praline Bread Pudding that was at New Orleans. Both were exceptional!

 

[Ms. WDW]

All this talk about puddings and cakes got me all wound up!! I just posted a new thread asking if anyone could stop by Louisiana and see if they would share the recipe for that bread pudding.

If anyone here could check I'd greatly appreciate it. If not, no worries. I'll see if I can get it next year!! I know at the restaurants most will share recipes; but at the F&W I don't know.

I would imagine I could find something "close" to it on the itnernet, but I thought I'd give this a shot first.



*******I found it and most of everything else from the festival!!!**************** At the bottom of this link - http://allears.net/din/rec.htm are the recipes from the F&W!!!!

 

[mama03]

Hello everyone I am back at home and will continue this report. I had problems connecting with the internet everyday, so I just decided to wait until I got home to complete report. I hope you enjoy the rest. Most of the report will be food porn so just a heads up.

 

[mama03]

Okay, we headed back to check out our room. We got room 1113. I thought this is possibly not a good sign of things to come this week. We were on the first floor overlooking the end of the bridge and could see the bus station. Now I realized as the days went by that this was a good location. There was an exit down the hall to the quiet pool area and to the left a sidewalk to the bus station. It was convenient to areas, except of course the lobby.
The long walk to the room.

The room was clean but old.
See look at the old style thermostat.

A little look at the studio.

The room was typical studio, but I must say the light in the bathroom was dim and the tv was very old. Hopefully they will be replacing those with the new ones soon.
The views from our room.

Well we got our luggage, cleaned up a bit and went back to epcot. I forgot our camera so no pics of tonight. We were pooped and slept very comfortably. One thing that struck me was someone likes their bacon, every morning and night you could really smell it in the hallways. I just kept thinking of that dog in the commercial mmmm BACON sniff sniff.
End of day one, whew.

 

[eporter66]

We just got back and had a great time. My fav was the Beef Empenada, and grilled beef skewere (Argentina) and Cheddar Cheese Soup (Canada). But we sampled a lot, I will write up more later.

 

[minniqt7]

We just got back too and spent three days eating and drinking around the world. Lava cake,cheese soup, Empanada, Sushi etc. etc.--- I think we ate everything in your photos!!!! I think the food was better this year than last. It was very organized too and the lines weren't too bad. Our son is a Chef in the Boston area and he was impressed with the food quality and presentation to each guest. WE really enjoyed everything!! I am definitely in food withdrawl now!! I really could eat a lava cake about now!!!! Sounds like everyone really enjoyed it this year. We did Peng Loo's demo- it was very good. Wish we could go back before it ends but... maybe next year!!!

 

[Jazzybell]

We returned home yesterday after a 5 night stay. I agree that this year's food was well done! My personal favorites were the warm chocolate lava cake (had 3 or 4 of those over our stay), quesadilla con chorizo, and the empanada. Makes me hungry just to think about those!

 

[mama03]

Monday, Oct. 19th

Woke up very early this morning. So what to do, well lets take some pics around the Boardwalk and figure out some room locations.
If someone has done a map of the room locations please let me know.
Since we were on the first floor I started at the elevators by the gym.
Heading straight down the hall the first rooms were located to the right overlooking the Clown pool, 1068-1070. Keep going straight and to the left overlooking valet would be 1081-1083. Now here the rooms veer into a V. Going toward the right of the V The rooms go from 1086-1095. The odds overlook the quiet pool, while the evens overlook the clown pool. Going back to the other side of the V, the rooms go from 1097-1136. Odd rooms overlook the valet, bus station, and tennis courts/walkway. The even rooms overlook the quiet pool. On the second floor the rooms follow the same as first floor. Now with construction I could not access the boardwalk rooms but here are the numbers 2001-2066. I am assuming that the odd numbers overlook the clown pool and the even numbers the boardwalk and garden area.
The clown pool

Ducks having fun in the pool

Here are some of the pics of where the scaffolding is located. It seemed that these rooms were not occupied except the rooms over Wyland Gallery.

 

[mama03]

Continue Monday;

Decided to try Kouzzina for breakfast. It was really empty so I had no problem getting seated.

I ordered the stacked Kouzzina brkfst, the eggs were done perfectly, the olive toast and artichoke spread delish, the hash was good but for me a little too much red pepper, now the chicken sausage is NASTY, can you say hockey pucks. Would go again, but avoid chic sausage.

Decided to walk off breakfast so I headed toward the DHS. It really is a pleasant walk.

It was packed so I only stayed about 2 hours ( I also had wine demo at noon)

 

[mama03]

After DHS headed over to epcot for LeCrema wine demo.

The demo was very good, according to our speaker they have been at disney f&w festival for 14years (including when disney had the institute).
The wines were Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, Los Carneros Pinot Noir, and finally the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir.
The were all good but when I tasted the Anderson Valley pn I was like ooohhh finally a wine that I like that does not cost too much. ERR WRONG, not only is it $40.00 a bottle but they dont make too much of this stuff. Oh well. I purchased a bottle of the rrpn and had it signed.
Now I had some time to kill since the food demo was not until 4:30pm.
So here are some pics around Epcot.
The flags will become bags next year, but the only way to purchase them will be to go early on in the festival, this year they sold out very quickly.

Japan:

Germany:

Italy:

China:

 

[Ms. WDW]

I really enjoyed your pictures! Thanks for the great reports!!

 

[mama03]

Well after leisurely going around Epcot, headed back to the festival center for the 4:30 food demo from Wolfgang Puck.
Chef Sinclair Thorne:

Schweiger Vineyards Chardonnay:

Maryland style crab cake w/ basil aioli:

Very good crabcake and demo worth $5.00.
Went back to the room to freshen up and hubby and I did not have a reservation for this evening.
We were going to try Shula's but there was a big convention in town so they were booked until 9:30.
We finally ended up at Flying Fish, which was very crowded and waited about 45 minutes.

We were seated next to a window
We started off with Crispy Sesame and Togarashi-scented Calamari:

Yellowfin Tuna Tartare with Far Eastern Accentuations:

For entrees, Signature Flying Fish Cafe: Char Crusted New York Strip Steak:
Yes, hubby was in the mood for steak.

This was outstanding, cooked perfectly (med/rare).
Signature Flying Fish Cafe Potato-Wrapped Red Snapper:

mmm this was also delish.
I am a cheese girl so I ordered the Chef's Degustation of Worldy Artisanal Cheeses; ST. Andre, tete de Moine, Manchego, Humboldt fog, point reyes blue:

along with a fortified wine flight. Hubby was just too full but he did order the Dessert wine flight. All were good but the standout is the Alexander Valley Trentadue Chocolate Amore. This was chocolate in a glass mmmm!
Completely stuffed we decided to walk around the boardwalk and noticed this great halloween decor on someones balcony. Job well done!

Whew end of day 2.

 

[mama03]

Tuesday, oct. 20th

Went outside and caught a pic of lizard and yes that is a snail climbing up the outside wall.

Decided to go to Magic Kingdom this morning before my noon demo. I never really had to wait long for a bus this week.

Decided to ride the train first:

Hidden mickey along the way:

As I was taking a pic of splash mountain and a boat came through, if you know this family I would be happy to send them the photo, yeah, long shot I know but thought I would put it out there:

Alice in wonderland topiary:

This is a new play area for kids, can you see piglet coming out the hole in tree, so cute:

I remembered that you could see tink at one of the shops, well here is the shop and if you can see the bell on the ledge, ask to ring the bell then tink will appear.

Swiss family treehouse:

On the way out of MK:

I took the people mover and it you really cant see that much of space mountain rehab, they have it all covered, but it still looks like they have allot to finish on the outside.
Well gotta head back to Epcot.

 

[IggyLans]

Nice pics... thanks for posting. I'm enjoying your TR!

 

[mama03]

made it back to epcot in time for the noon tasting of Cognacs (Brandy). I kid you not as I approached the area I could smell the alcohol.

Remy VSOP, Remy 1738, Remy XO:

Our guest speaker was a cutie patutie:

I must say I did get a little tipsy after this demo, should have eaten prior to going but oh well. Good demo and they did discuss the very expensive baccarat bottled cognac. I might actually one day order a glass just to try.
After this demo I decided to go over to the area that a woodcarver artist was selling her wares. She was really good and had many nice pieces, decided to purchase a turtle (we lived in Hawaii for 3 years so this reminded me of our time there). She went to show me her fantastic piece she carved of an iguana. Her company is called the Global Gecko and she only uses ecologically friendly tree branches and burls(she does not cut down anything for her artwork). theglobalgecko@sbcglobal.net.

Well had to get something in my stomach oh where to go

This was hands down my favorite the grilled lamb chop:

paris it was like slow cooked beef with a topping of mashed potato mmm:

Met up with hubby and what do you think he wanted to try

after he tasted these we had to get the big plastic beer mug.

 

[mama03]

We went back to get cleaned up and on our way for dinner at California Grill. This happened to be a MNSSHP night. This was the first pangs of mommy guilt MK looked awesome! I put in a request for the Wine room, which is all the way around and has a view of the lake and wilderness lodge. It normally would be quiet and romantic but those darn convention dudes. Oh well, we still enjoyed the night.
the bar while waiting for our table.

Yellowfin tuna 3 ways mmm!

after we got to our table started off with Roasted saigon pork flatbread:

Sonoma goat cheese ravioli:

The fireworks were about to start so we headed out to watch the pics didnt come out well but we really enjoyed the music and fireworks:

back to dinner, had to take home most of the flatbread.
I had the Seared Ostrich filet

hubby had the day boat scallops

Both were jummy, and of course I am a cheese girl so we finished off with the cheese board.

we really enjoyed this evening, we will be back!

 

[mama03]

Nice pics... thanks for posting. I'm enjoying your TR!

Thanks, I hope you get some ideas on where to eat. So jealous you will be here in two weeks. Have a great time!!!