We spent a beautiful Wednesday at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival and ate ourselves silly! It wasn’t crowded at all, but that also meant there weren’t many drunk people staggering around. (Just kidding, there aren’t usually drunk people staggering around. But we have been there when there were gangs of people wearing identical T-shirts drinking their way around the world.)
We’re just there for the food. Here’s what we ate:
First stop, Coastal Eats.
We had the so-called “Lump Crab Cake with Napa Cabbage Slaw and Avocado-Lemongrass Cream” for the second time. We really should have taken a pass, because we’ve already had it. No need to fill up on foods we’ve tried before. And it’s not “lump” crab, but shredded. Why do they call it “lump” when it’s shredded? Is “lump” a type of crab? I don’t think so. (Lump crab, as it turns out, refers to the large portions of crab meat that come out of the main body of the crab. So I suppose the word “lump” refers to that portion of meat and not the texture of it.) But I do love crab cakes and anyway, we were at Coastal Eats for the “Pacifico True Striped Bass Tostada with Slaw and Fire-Roasted Tomatillo Sauce,” so might as well get the crab cake, too. Am I right?
I’m not sure where the word “True” goes. Is it truly bass? Or truly striped? Or truly a tostada? I’d beg to differ on the tostada. I mean, technically, okay, the bass and slaw were on a round, fried, crispy tortilla. But I thought it should be a corn tortilla and I suspect it was not.
Either way, both dishes were delicious. The fire-roasted tomatillo sauce was hot, hot, hot! And the avocado lemongrass cream on the crab cake was cool and soothing.
Stop number two! The Chocolate Studio for dessert. (Dessert #1 anyway.)
Here we had the “Liquid Nitro Chocolate-Almond Truffle with Warm Whiskey Caramel.”
It was excellent! But I don’t think you could call it a truffle. It was a hand dipped scoop of chocolate custard dropped into the nitrogen, then pulled out frozen, whacked with a mallet to break it up, drizzled with the caramel and topped with almond crumbs. It was yum-MEE! Silky smooth as the hard cold custard melts in the your mouth. I could’ve eaten more of that.
Stop three: Morocco!
Here we tried the “Spicy Hummus Fries with Cucumber, Tomatoes, Onions, Tzatziki, and Chipotle Sauce. Hot, spicy good!
Tzatziki is defined as a dip, soup, or sauce made with yogurt. The cucumber helped to cool your burning tongue after the chipotle sauce. Now, these weren’t “fries” in the conventional sense. They were large rectangular chunks. And there were way too many to eat. I loved it, but hubs reaction was…”What’s the point?” And I get that, I totally do. It’s a snack. The hummus itself had no flavor other than “fried.” But it was warm and spicy and comforting.
At the Morocco booth, we also had the “Chocolate Baklava: Rolled Phyllo Dough with Toasted Almonds and Dark Chocolate Sauce.” It’s cute how they have to explain what baklava is. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this was…just…baklava…with chocolate sauce in it and on top of it. It was delicious.
On to number 4! Africa.
Poor Africa. We have avoided it for the last few years because the first time we had food there it was…I’m sorry, it was awful. But this year’s offerings had promise. We had the “Spicy Kenyan Vegan Githeri with White Beans, Pigeon Peas, Curry Rice Pilaf, and Kachumbari Slaw” and the “Piri Piri Skewered Shrimp with Citrus-scented couscous.”
Githeri is basically any bean dish. At first bite, the white beans were delicious, but soon after followed a rather disgusting taste. It was some sort of spice, I think. Hubs said it had a strong chicken broth taste to it. But it was supposed to be vegan, so I don’t know what the problem was. I didn’t like it. The curry rice pilaf had no flavor at all, but the slaw was nice.
As for the shrimp, I tasted the first one and it was horrid! Horrid, I tell you. But the rest of them tasted like…shrimp on the barbie. So I don’t know what that first one was soaked in. From the picture, it looks like it was the Kachumbari slaw, but I tasted that by itself and it wasn’t egregious. Who knows? The citrus-scented couscous was a bit lemony and nice.
Kachumbari is a fresh tomato and onion salad dish and piri piri is hot pepper. All in all, I will likely skip Africa again. I mean…I can get shrimp anywhere.
Fifth on our list was India where we tried the “Madras Red Curry with Roasted Cauliflower, Baby Carrots, Chickpeas and Uncle Ben’s Basmati Rice.”
What can I say. I guess I don’t like curry. Hubs wouldn’t even taste it. “After that face you made? I’m not trying it!”
Number six, The Alps.
Here we had a “Blueberry and Almond Frangipane Tart with Creme Fraiche Cream and Blue Diamond Almonds.” Frangipane is the filling that has the blueberries in it.
The tart crust was really thick; we couldn’t cut it up but had to just take bites. But it was like a sugar cookie so that was nice. The blueberries were lovely but the frangipane, though supposedly flavored with almonds by definition, had a basic bread aftertaste that I could do without. It was all very mildly sweet. After eating something like this I wonder about Europeans. Their desserts just aren’t sweet enough for me.
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| The underside of an umbrella at a table. Epcot 2019 |
Stop number seven was Mexico where we tried the “Capirotada de Chocolate: Chocolate Bread Pudding served with Chocolate Abuelita Creme Anglaise.” This time, I was grateful for the translation. But, I thought “abuelita” meant Grandmother! There’s a granny in the anglaise!
This was pretty good stuff. Bread pudding with chocolate chips in it, I have to say, is far superior than bread pudding with raisins. Not too sweet, not heavy. But…bread! It was filling. We ate more than we should have. But we didn’t eat the flower. Chickens.
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| Stone Head from the Three Amigos Ride; Epcot 2019 |
For stop number eight, we found ourselves at The Donut Box where I was expecting some “Sweet Corn Fritter(s) with Fresno and Red Pepper Jelly.”
The corn fritters (and yes, though the description was singular, there were several) were not sweet, but they were corn fritters. The jelly was spicy and just “okay.” I wouldn’t have it again. Today we went to Titusville and had lunch at Dixie Crossroads where we had some real corn fritters, topped with powdered sugar. Sorry, they were gone before I even thought about taking a picture.
Our 9th stop was Ireland for the annual “Warm Chocolate Pudding with Irish Cream Liqueur Custard.” Hubs refuses to eat any of this because he believes that I am a princess and deserve to eat it all myself. Well, this year, I took several bites and brought the rest home in a storage container. It was really, really good later that night cold from the fridge! To die for.
Number 10: Italy.
We don’t usually stop at Italy anymore either. We don’t find their food very…good. But this year they had a “Chocolate-Hazelnut Cake: Vanilla Cake and Chocolate-Hazelnut Mascarpone Cream dipped in Chocolate.” I had to try that. It was cake on a stick!
And was it ever delicious! The chocolate coating was thick and yummy. The chocolate hazelnut cream was light and not too sweet and sure, the cake was a little dry, but we ate the whole thing.
That was it. We couldn’t eat another bite.
The line for the Frozen ride was only 45 minutes but we didn’t bother. All in all, it was a wonderful, filling day. I look forward to doing it again next year.