We Smelled It...It Had to be Eaten, Part II ... Ding, Dong, Done!!!

Wednesday, October 15th - And We're Eating and Eating and Eating ...

Despite the ongoing nuclear meltdown in the financial markets, Jay and I did our best to mentally disconnect from the world's events while at WDW. We both work in the finance / banking / automotive industries and knew that there would be plenty of problems waiting for us when we arrived back in Stinktown. Why borrow trouble when you can pretend to be blissfully ignorant while stuffing yer face and getting yer buzz on?

And that, no doubt, is the reason why this day turned out to be one of the best days of an already very fine trip. We made our way back over to Epcot and positioned ourselves in Canada shortly before 11AM in order to implement our simple yet brilliant Food & Wine strategy: E = MC2.

:confused3

Eating = Masses Circumvented(twice)

Yes, Einstein ... we theorized that the World Showcase would be a lot more enjoyable if we began our snacktacular quest with the booths in Canada and worked our way around the lagoon counter-clockwise like a pair of drunken fishies swimming against the school.

First stop: The Brewer's Collection... a vast selection of beery goodness from around the world. I liked this booth for many reasons, but most especially because they asked me for an ID!!! :rotfl2:

Someone's been at the beer early if I'm being checked for ID!
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There were seven beers to choose from: Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Staropramen, Boddingtons, Tennent’s Lager, Harbin Beer, and Tiger Beer.

After ruling out those beers we had already tried (Stella's Hoeing the Gaarden of Boddys) and eliminating the one that sounded like a newly discovered form of antibiotic-resistant, flesh-eating bacteria, we opted for a lager since it was still early in the day - there was no need to drink anything too heavy before noon.

Tennent's Lager ... TA DA!!!
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Considered Scotland's best selling pale lager, Tennent's was the first lager brewed in Scotland. Interestingly enough the brewery is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bass Brewers, which is in turn owned by that global brewery gobbling behemoth INBEV!!!

Stinktonians still harbor (harbin?) some hard feelings over the recent acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by InBev. While Jay and I weren't huge fans of many AB products, the brewery and the Busch family were certainly a force in the local community and could always be counted on to give generously to organizations and charities that needed a helping hand. They also had a really cool beer song and a beer wagon and beer horses who lived on a vast expanse of land in the middle of suburban St. Louis that just happened to hold a little log cabin where Sam Grant used to live.

You tell me where else in this great country you could take a field trip that includes the former home of a Civil War general and US President along with massive stables for the beer horses, a pseudo-Bavarian town square, and a beer-baron mansion of truly epic proportions that’s always off-limits to the grubby public?

Viva le Stinktown! Or so it used to be after thirty free beer samples and a burping contest of epic proportions. Now with the advent of InBev all free beer goodies and genial public displays of digestive gassiness are gone gone gone! And the worst thing about it ... InBev actually puts out some damn fine beer so we can't even stay annoyed with them.

But we could be slightly annoyed with the beer booth thanks to their woeful and inadequate food supply which consisted of a sad selection of potato chips.

ICK!
ACK!
GACK!

Who eats potato chips with beer? Our inner Gollum wants a hot pretzel with some spicy mustard or a sausage dog or nachos dripping with processed cheese food. When it became quite clear that none of these options were available Jay strolled over to Turkey and ordered some food to accompany our beer.

Manti with Yogurt Sauce and Meze
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The Manti was basically a spicy meat dumpling with yogurt sauce drizzled attractively over the top. It was a strange taste combination … warm noodle, warmer spiced mystery meat, and chilled, slightly sweet yogurt sauce. I ate a little bit of it but left most for Jay because I just didn't care much for it.

Meze roughly translates as a selection of appetizers or small dishes; in this case we received some steamed eggplant and peppers, some grilled pita bread, and a kind of psuedo-hummus. I liked the psuedo-hummus and the pita bread, although I would have liked the bread better if it had been soft. The veggies must have been OK but neither one of us recall much about them.

From Turkey we strolled halfway around the World Showcase to find ourselves in America Town and the Hops & Barley Market.

Even more beer choices ...
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This is one of those booths that never changes from year-to-year. They offer something like ten different choices of Sam Adams beer varietals, an overpriced lobster roll, and a crab cake. If they ever offered something new at this booth I think I'd drop dead right there outside of America Gardens Theatre, which at last check didn't really have a garden.

Well, since we were here and hungry Jay and I decided to order the lot, less nine beer selections. Behold: Boston Crab Cake w/ Corn & Barley Salad; New England Lobster Roll; Sam Adams Cream Stout.

Eat them up, yum!
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We thought the lobster roll was actually pretty good, even if it carried a rather steep six dollar pricetag. Since we don't have things like this on menus in Stinktown we have no way to gauge it against the real item that one might find in Boston or elsewhere along America's upper East Coast, but we enjoyed it, especially with the cream stout.

The crab cake was tasty but it sure looks to me as if the corn and barley salad were stranded somewhere and didn't quite make it to our plate. I'm pretty sure the salad was burried under the crab cake but it did not make much of an impression.

Surprise of the morning? I really liked the Cream Stout!!! It definitely poured out of the tap like motor oil but it smelled like coffee and had a slightly sweet coffee flavor ... it was really quite good!

We're never so happy as when drinking beer ... unless we're drinking wine ... or scotch ... or some other type of booze
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Our next stop was Ireland where we made our second mistake of the day. The first mistake was trying to purchase something from the F&W booth in Japan where mass confusion reigned over several Key to the World cards, the Dining Plan, four guests, two cast members, and at least three different languages. We lost fifteen minutes of our vacation in Japan and we want them back ... with interest!

Anyway, our second mistake was in ordering the boxty in Ireland instead of sticking with the Irish cheese plate. Since we'd ordered the cheese plate at last year's festival we wanted to try something new this year ... all I can say is next time I'm going back to the cheese. It's hard to screw up sliced cheese.

Ireland has the cutest F&W booth!
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The official name of our food selection was Boxty with Bacon Chips and Kerrygold Garlic & Fresh Herb Butter. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this:

Pancake with onions and a butter globual...
457.jpg


Maybe I'm a little too Americanized, even for an American, but I like maple syrup with my pancake, not fried onions. And I don't see bacon chips ... I see one bacon bit. And as for that huge mound of butter ... Jay and I together wouldn't use that much butter on an entire stack of pancakes much less one. Our final verdict: avoid the boxty at all costs ... it's greasy and overcooked and just not that good.

We hoped that our next stop would be more productive and stopped in Eye-Ta-Lee to see what they had to offer.

My bologna has a first name, it's G-E-O-R-G-E...
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Here we selected the Baked Ziti; Cream Puff w/Mascarpone & Gianduja Chocolate; and a Moretti Beer. We chose to ignore the other food option - sausage pizza.

Hooray food!
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The baked ziti was very good and certainly large enough for two hogs like Jay and me to share comfortably - it also paired quite nicely with the Moretti Beer, which we'd never tried before. It reminded us a lot of a light beer ala' Bud Light ... oh wait, I guess that's InBev Light, now. ;)

The Cream Puffs were delightful but would have tasted better with some Prosecco or some Rosa Regale rather than with the warm remnants of our beer. As we continued our slow trek through the world showcase look at who we stumbled across! Two of our three dinner partners for the coming evening ... the founding members of TheDISneyFamily!!

Michelle & Steve
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Self-portrait #87 - yes we can!
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We exchanged greetings and talked a little F&W ... we were eyeballing Spain's booth and had it on good authority from Michelle and Steve that the tuna was definitely worth ordering. And we all agreed that the Cheesemonger booth was one of the best at the festival. Eventually we parted ways since Jay and I had a reservation for afternoon tea over at the Grand Floridian. But before we left Epcot we had time for one more stop at ...

Spain!

I miss the PAIN sign with the floating letter "S".
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Taking the advice of our friends we selected the Chilled Tomato and Garlic Soup and Seared Tuna Loin w/Spicy Red Pepper Coulis and Garlic Herb Ciabatta. I also decided that we should end the afternoon with some bubbly and selected the Poema Cava Brut to wash down our food.

Excellent!
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Let's start with the chilled soup ... we both really enjoyed this ... a nicely blended mix of tomatoes and garlic with some crispy croutons bobbing along for added texture. I particularly liked how well the soup had been pureed. A few years back we tried gazpacho at Spain's booth and it was like trying to eat cold picante sauce right out of the bottle. :scared: This was a marked improvement.

The tuna was also very tasty and very generously portioned - there are actually two pieces of loin on the plate, but one has been drowned in red pepper coulis. I avoided the sauce for the most part but thought the tuna was excellent and so did Jay. This dish was one of the best we sampled at the entire festival.

And both dishes paired nicely with our champagne, which was light and dry ... not a hint of sweetness to it which is just the way we typically prefer our bubbly.

And then check out what we spotted on our way out of the park ... we were over by the odyssey where it's often less crowded and the bathrooms are less busy ...

TURTLE SOUP!!!

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Stay tuned for another report on afternoon tea at the Gardenview Lounge ... and thanks for reading!! :goodvibes
 
For some reason the "founding members of the DISneyfamily" made me snicker.
Mmm...beer (goes off to see if any of the Offshore Ale is left). :rotfl:
 
[First stop: The Brewer's Collection... a vast selection of beery goodness from around the world. I liked this booth for many reasons, but most especially because they asked me for an ID!!! :rotfl2:

Someone's been at the beer early if I'm being checked for ID!

I had to laugh at this because I had the same experience, only at the Greece booth. I actually thought the kid was joking when he asked me for ID and busted up laughing in his face...until I realized he was serious-and then I was annoyed. Considering I've already hit the big 4-0, have a kid embarking on college and could have been this kids mother...it just didn't amuse me. It did however, give DH a huge thing to bust me on for the rest of the trip. :sad2:

Love all the food pics. I so wish that the booths were up year round, but I guess it would get old after a while...maybe. ;) Can't wait to hear about your dinner with my pals, Michelle & Steve. They are always great company. :banana:
 
As we are hopefully going to be there the first weekend of F & W, John's ears just perked up when I said "A beer booth! No, wait...TWO beer booths!!!"

:thumbsup2

Thanks for the quality review, as always!
 

I am so enjoying your updates. I cannot wait for F&W this year and this is just perfect to tide me over!
 
So, you've got me curious...why was it "psuedo-hummus"? I've been craving the Mediterranean Dips at Spoodles. I almost bought feta dip today at Kroger's but I was afraid it would be a sad substitute.
 
We must have caught Spain on a bad day, the Seared Tuna Loin w/Spicy Red Pepper Coulis was voted our least favorite of all.
 
/
Great (funny) update tonight!

"Never so happy as when we're drinking beer or scotch or wine or other alcholic beverage" :lmao:

Thanks for the laughs tonight, oh and the food looked good too :goodvibes
 
For some reason the "founding members of the DISneyfamily" made me snicker.
Mmm...beer (goes off to see if any of the Offshore Ale is left). :rotfl:

I thought it seemed like a cute title to give them. And as for beer .. we are drinking Schlafly's Reserve Stout ... yum!

I had to laugh at this because I had the same experience, only at the Greece booth. I actually thought the kid was joking when he asked me for ID and busted up laughing in his face...until I realized he was serious-and then I was annoyed. Considering I've already hit the big 4-0, have a kid embarking on college and could have been this kids mother...it just didn't amuse me. It did however, give DH a huge thing to bust me on for the rest of the trip. :sad2:

I thought the lady at the beer booth was joking at first, too. And luckily for me I'd brought my drivers license ... I would have been annoyed beyond all get out if I'd been turned away because I didn't have it with me. I may look a little young for my age but I do not look like I'm in my twenties. I definitely look like I'm in my thirties.

Anyway, I understand exactly where you're coming from. :goodvibes

Love all the food pics. I so wish that the booths were up year round, but I guess it would get old after a while...maybe. ;) Can't wait to hear about your dinner with my pals, Michelle & Steve. They are always great company. :banana:

Jay and I visited Epcot a few years ago in May and we really missed the food booths ... I'm not sure it would get old for those of us who don't get to visit all the time.

We had a really wonderful time at dinner that night at Blue Zoo ... I can't believe I'm finally getting to the point in these reviews where I can post all about it.

As we are hopefully going to be there the first weekend of F & W, John's ears just perked up when I said "A beer booth! No, wait...TWO beer booths!!!"

:thumbsup2

Thanks for the quality review, as always!

Thanks for reading ... I'm sure your hubby will enjoy the booths, especially those with beer. Just tell him to to read up on InBev and Sam Adams products. ;)

I am so enjoying your updates. I cannot wait for F&W this year and this is just perfect to tide me over!

Thanks very much - I'm glad you're enjoying them!

So, you've got me curious...why was it "psuedo-hummus"? I've been craving the Mediterranean Dips at Spoodles. I almost bought feta dip today at Kroger's but I was afraid it would be a sad substitute.

I refer to it as psuedo-hummus because I'm not sure exactly what it was! :lmao: I don't want to call it hummus if that's not really what it was and I just don't know.

We must have caught Spain on a bad day, the Seared Tuna Loin w/Spicy Red Pepper Coulis was voted our least favorite of all.

Too bad ... we definitely got some good stuff - they were cooking it up while we were waiting. That's the crap shoot of F&W ... one day good and then the next is craptacular.
 
Great (funny) update tonight!

"Never so happy as when we're drinking beer or scotch or wine or other alcholic beverage" :lmao:

Thanks for the laughs tonight, oh and the food looked good too :goodvibes

Thank you very much ... always glad to provide some laughs along with the food porn! :thumbsup2
 
Even more beer choices ...
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Is it just me or does the left side of that building look like Wisconsin?? :goodvibes I'm sooooo ready for a vacation outta here! :cool1:

Great update B.
 
Holy Crap! That was a biggin friggin' turtle! I would hate to be so inebriated that I fell into a WDW pond, I would surely get eaten by the turtles...:lmao: :lmao:
 
Another great update! Being from Boston, I can tell you that $6 for a lobster roll is pretty cheap, though it's hard to tell how big it is. They are usually twice that price at the very least. It looks like big pieces of lobster too. It was hard to tell about the crab cake though. The picture looked more bread than crab, but then again, they're not as much of a Boston thing, so I only have my trips to Baltimore to judge by. I can assure you though, Baltimore has some *good* crab cakes!
 
As we sit here John and Michele relaxing with a few drinks in our home in Florida. I see Steve and Michelle and Jay and Bendy meeting each other and wish we all could meet up together. Maybe one day:goodvibes
 
As we sit here John and Michele relaxing with a few drinks in our home in Florida. I see Steve and Michelle and Jay and Bendy meeting each other and wish we all could meet up together. Maybe one day:goodvibes

Just clear your schedule for Oct...


Oh and Bendy... when I first tried Guinness back in college (with a guy I was dating...) I used to think it tasted like the drippings from a good roast beef... but that cream ale looks really good... :thumbsup2
 
John is very good at educating himself on a variety of subjects, and has spent a lot of time on Sam Adams this year. We've gotten every variety pack that has come out locally. :thumbsup2
 
Is it just me or does the left side of that building look like Wisconsin?? :goodvibes I'm sooooo ready for a vacation outta here! :cool1:

Great update B.

Why does that building look like Wisconsin to you? Inquiring Stinktonians want to know!

Thanks for reading Goosie!

Holy Crap! That was a biggin friggin' turtle! I would hate to be so inebriated that I fell into a WDW pond, I would surely get eaten by the turtles...:lmao: :lmao:

We were really surprised by just how large that sucker was ... and now we understand why Disney always tells people not to feed the animals! :rotfl2:

Another great update! Being from Boston, I can tell you that $6 for a lobster roll is pretty cheap, though it's hard to tell how big it is. They are usually twice that price at the very least. It looks like big pieces of lobster too. It was hard to tell about the crab cake though. The picture looked more bread than crab, but then again, they're not as much of a Boston thing, so I only have my trips to Baltimore to judge by. I can assure you though, Baltimore has some *good* crab cakes!

Thanks for reading and for the information - we always struggle with the lobster roll ... do we buy it or not? It's one of those things that we usually leave to the end of the trip when we're not feeling as tight with our F&W money (unless we've spent it already). Anyway, since it's not something one ever sees in Stinktown it's hard to say how it stacks up against the real thing ... and I can tell you that this was definitely not a full-size portion. ;)

As we sit here John and Michele relaxing with a few drinks in our home in Florida. I see Steve and Michelle and Jay and Bendy meeting each other and wish we all could meet up together. Maybe one day:goodvibes

No chance you can come in October when the rest of us will be there? I'm trying to plan an informal meet-n-drink-n-snack-n-greet ... it would only be better if you were able to join us! :goodvibes


Just clear your schedule for Oct...


Oh and Bendy... when I first tried Guinness back in college (with a guy I was dating...) I used to think it tasted like the drippings from a good roast beef... but that cream ale looks really good... :thumbsup2

It's taken me decades to get to the point where I actually like to drink darker beers, so I completely understand where you're coming from.


John is very good at educating himself on a variety of subjects, and has spent a lot of time on Sam Adams this year. We've gotten every variety pack that has come out locally. :thumbsup2

Here's the listing of beer Sam Adams offered at the Hops & Barley booth:

Sam Adams Light
Boston Ale
Pale Ale
Boston Lager
Oktoberfest
Cherry Wheat
Honey Porter
Black Lager
Cream Stout
Sam Adams 13th Annual F&W Festival Lager

Try them all!!! :thumbsup2 :lmao:
 
Why does that building look like Wisconsin to you? Inquiring Stinktonians want to know!

Thanks for reading Goosie!

The brick work on the left side of the building looks like the shape of the state of WI to me. Well, without the peninsula though. No?? :confused3 :rotfl:
 
Ireland has the cutest F&W booth!
456.jpg

Aww - it really is the cutest!

The official name of our food selection was Boxty with Bacon Chips and Kerrygold Garlic & Fresh Herb Butter. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this:

Pancake with onions and a butter globual...
457.jpg


Maybe I'm a little too Americanized, even for an American, but I like maple syrup with my pancake, not fried onions. And I don't see bacon chips ... I see one bacon bit. And as for that huge mound of butter ... Jay and I together wouldn't use that much butter on an entire stack of pancakes much less one. Our final verdict: avoid the boxty at all costs ... it's greasy and overcooked and just not that good.

You know, Boxty is something that I have a hard time pinning down. We have an "Irish" restaurant here in my town that has them on the menu, and their version is a deep-fried mashed potato ball.

In Dublin, there's a well-known restaurant called Gallagher's Boxty House, where the boxty is more like a crepe (although I believe there's potato in the batter). They offer them rolled up with various fillings - I think I had chicken and mushroom in a creamy sauce, with more of the creamy sauce ladeled over the top, and it was yummy. I guess this thing you had was closer to that one, only laid flat and just a mess of unappetizing onions and a butter-golfball on top, no yummy filling or creamy goodness. It doesn't look that great.


Stay tuned for another report on afternoon tea at the Gardenview Lounge ... and thanks for reading!! :goodvibes

Looking forward to it! Love the Gardenview. :love:
 
Wednesday, October 15th - And We're Eating and Eating and Eating ...
We made our way back over to Epcot and positioned ourselves in Canada shortly before 11AM in order to implement our simple yet brilliant Food & Wine strategy: E = MC2.

:confused3

Eating = Masses Circumvented(twice)

Yes, Einstein ... we theorized that the World Showcase would be a lot more enjoyable if we began our snacktacular quest with the booths in Canada and worked our way around the lagoon counter-clockwise like a pair of drunken fishies swimming against the school.

Your formula actually makes more sense to me than Einsteins - perhaps another Nobel prize is in order?



First stop: The Brewer's Collection... a vast selection of beery goodness from around the world. I liked this booth for many reasons, but most especially because they asked me for an ID!!! :rotfl2:

Someone's been at the beer early if I'm being checked for ID!
th_452.jpg


There were seven beers to choose from: Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Staropramen, Boddingtons, Tennent’s Lager, Harbin Beer, and Tiger Beer.

After ruling out those beers we had already tried (Stella's Hoeing the Gaarden of Boddys) and eliminating the one that sounded like a newly discovered form of antibiotic-resistant, flesh-eating bacteria, we opted for a lager since it was still early in the day - there was no need to drink anything too heavy before noon.

I sound like a broken record but your trip reports have me howling with laughter. What a hoot!


Anyway, our second mistake was in ordering the boxty in Ireland instead of sticking with the Irish cheese plate. Since we'd ordered the cheese plate at last year's festival we wanted to try something new this year ... all I can say is next time I'm going back to the cheese. It's hard to screw up sliced cheese.

Ireland has the cutest F&W booth!
th_456.jpg


The official name of our food selection was Boxty with Bacon Chips and Kerrygold Garlic & Fresh Herb Butter. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this:

Pancake with onions and a butter globual...
th_457.jpg


Maybe I'm a little too Americanized, even for an American, but I like maple syrup with my pancake, not fried onions. And I don't see bacon chips ... I see one bacon bit. And as for that huge mound of butter ... Jay and I together wouldn't use that much butter on an entire stack of pancakes much less one. Our final verdict: avoid the boxty at all costs ... it's greasy and overcooked and just not that good.

Boxty is the Irish version of the traditional European potato pancake - known as Latkes, Kartoffelpuffer, Reibekuchen, etc . My mother makes the German version, and if made properly, it's one of the most delicious things in the world. It's definitely not meant to be served with maple syrup - something unknown in Germany until after the war. If you want something sweet on it you would use homemade applesauce and/or some sugar but it's just as frequently served with sour cream and/or crumbled bacon.
 














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