Tuesday, October 13th - To Boldly Go Where Everyone Else Has Already Gone ...
Among the many things Jay and I were looking forward to on this trip was our oft discussed attempt at drinking around Epcot's World Showcase ... a feat which has been accomplished by many DISers in many different ways and to whom who owe a slurred
shanksamop (that's "thanks a lot" in non-drunk speak) for planting the idea in our heads in the first place. A special thanks, of course, goes out to our friend RobertP who completed his own quest for World Showcase Drink Infamy last spring and was kind enough to share the amusing details with us all on Gastropod Travels.
Before we even left on our trip Jay and I had to agree upon the "rules" which were drafted three times.
Version I aka Death by Drink: You must imbibe every alcoholic beverage available in the World Showcase, including all booze at the 26 F&W Booths scattered around the lagoon, in the course of one day.
After reminding the hubba that the point of this little escapade was to have fun, not alcohol poisoning, he went back to his desk and took up pen and paper a second time.
Version II aka Liver Transplant Needed Urgently: You must imbibe at every F&W booth and every official Epcot World Showcase country in the course of one day.
Sigh. Poor hubba ... thinking about drinking like we were still in our formative college years. This time I had to remind him that we didn't have the combined metabolism or liver enzymes to survive this secondary blitz approach.
It's not easy admitting that you're middle aged.
Version III aka Live to Drink Another Day: You must imbibe at least one shared drink at every official World Showcase country in the course of one day.
Third time's a charm!
We were fortunate to have fine fine weather on this day - had it been too hot or too humid all bets would have been off and we would have shelved the attempt for another year. Jay and I arrived at Epcot shortly after 11AM so the World Showcase was already open for business. Since we had the entire day to achieve our goal we weren't in a rush and didn't have a set drinking plan ... we just wandered from country to country until the thirst set upon us.
Drink #1: Rosa Regale, Italy
Pretty in pink
Here's to not working!
Ahhhh, an eight dollar plastic flute of sparkling red wine - a festive and nose tickling way to start off our drink-fest. I will be the first to admit that some years ago I was skeptical of this wine: sparkling ... sweet ...
pink ... it didn't sound appealing at all. But then we had dinner at the Chef's Table and they served it to me with my cheese course. It was a revelation! A lovely sparkling red wine with dark pink bubbles, Rosa Regale smells a bit like raspberries and is lightly sweet without any of the gacky aftertaste so many sweet wines seem to leave.
Drink #2: Frozen Lime Margarita, Mexico
They put da lime in the coconut...
Jay and the limey
Our past experience with Mexico's margarita stand was quite good - we always ordered the Fiesta margarita which used to be a tasty blend of lime, strawberry, kiwi, and mango. Rumors on the DIS alerted me pre-trip that one of the Disney Menu Mangling Team had worked their magic on Mexico and sour apple had since replaced lime in the Fiesta margarita.
Sour Apple?
Brenda:
Blech!
Jason:
Gack!
Strawberry margaritas are usually too sweet for our taste so we rolled the dice and went with lime, which was still being offered by itself but not in combination with anything else. Normally I would have cogitated on that with Jay for a while but I'd been beaten down by too many "that's what our guests asked for" responses from WDW Guest Communications, the Disney Dining Experience group, and the F&W Festival Borg Planning Committee. I admitted defeat and welcomed the blissful numbing effects of the alcoholic brain freeze to come.
We were both surprised at how enjoyable the lime margarita actually was - a refreshing blend of sweet and sour it had a nicely balanced taste - probably because we requested a rimless drink ... no salt or sugar. We would definitely order this one again!
As Jay and I wandered the World Showcase, slowly enjoying our frozen drinkie-poo, we stopped in China for a bit of a rest. The lily pond struck us both as especially purty ... it may have been the booze ... and we snapped two pictures while we could still remember how to use the camera.
Do you see a frog?
This picture might actually look good if it weren't for that piece of trash floating in the bottom left-hand corner!
There's a reason we're not professional photographers ... actually there are many. But rather than dwell on our artistic shortcomings let us move forward towards a snackarino from India. Jay and I were both feeling a mite peckish (I love that word!!!) but were craving different things. He loves spicy food and things that still qualify as weird and scary in my book, and so was able to enjoy all by himself the wonder of this from India's F&W booth:
Samosa with Tamarind Sauce
In my slightly tipsy state that looks like a dessert ...
So, what the heck is a samosa anyway? Jay said it was like eating a potato-stuffed dumpling with a sweet and sour spicy sauce. He actually told me that had I ordered a sauceless samosa I probably would have really enjoyed it. Meh ... I had other things on my mind and they did not include any kind of vegetable.
Drink #3 - Beck's Oktoberfest; Germany
Beer; is there anything it can't do?
My snack crave was satisfied by the
Sausage without Sauerkraut in a Pretzel Roll, enhanced by some spicy brown mustard. The CMs at Germany's F&W booth are always stunned when I order this without the sauerkraut. As far as I'm concerned why ruin a perfectly good sausage and pretzel with cabbage? This is one of my all-time favorite F&W treats in Germany and I love to wash it down with a good beer. Beck's Oktoberfest was not as good as Spaten Optimator but was still a tasty brew and neither Jay nor I wanted anything too heavy at this point in our adventure.
The extra sausage in this picture is my leg, thanks for asking...
Drink #4 - Shirakawago Sasanigori Ginjo Sake, Japan
Many posts and pages ago in a thread long-since locked I posted a review of Tokyo Dining where I mentioned this really good cloudy sake that Erica's husband ordered and let us try. It was terrific ... so tasty, in fact, that four days later we couldn't remember what it was called. When memory failed we asked the Sake Bar CM in Japan-Mart to choose one for us - so we tried the sake in the blue bottle.
It's funny ... the one we really wanted is the one we didn't try!
Jay & sake
Jay & me & sake ...
There's one thing worth noting here - in years past when a guest purchased sake at this little bar it was served in a white plastic sake cup with purple flowers on one side and a sort of stylized Japanese wave-scape on the other side. Catch the right CM on the right day and she would write your name on the bottom of the cup in Japanese characters for free! Now if you'd like that cool little souvenir you get to pay extra for it on top of the charge for your sake.
How much?
More than a tacky little plastic cup is worth, that's for sure.
In case you're wondering about the sake, it was actually quite good. It's an unfiltered sake that is typically served chilled - it was light and rich and had a lovely fragrance.
Thus ends this first installment of Drinking Around the World ... our fifth drink would end up being five of them at Rose and Crown where we had scheduled a late afternoon lunch break. So stay tuned for a full blown review of lunch at Rose and Crown ... a very tasty, very beery interlude!
I am still mad there is no more spinach dip at the GFC; no recipe to be found anywhere either.
; the walk back certainly used up those extra calories we consumed!
. You should have sent it back.
.....
