A tasty time of year

Every year Epcot Center comes to life with the annual Food and Wine Festival! People always say the best way to get to know a different culture is through food and that’s exactly what Disney has done! In addition to the 10 countries that are in the World Showcase there are 26 other booths set up with different food, dessert, wine and beer samplings to try. There are also a variety of cooking classes, demos, and wine tastings to try; some are free and some require an additional ticket. 

The booth samples range from $3-$7 and are fairly big portions, big enough to share with someone. There is a phrase at Epcot and for Food and Wine: “Eat around the World,” and they really mean around the world! There are a total of 36 booths representing different countries around the world at the Food and wine Festival : 

Terra (Vegan options)
 Patagonia
 New Zealand 
 Odyssey Coffee Cart
 Craft Beers
 Australia
 Mexico
 Farm Fresh 
 China 
 South Korea
 Africa
 The Refreshment Cool Post 
 Brewer’s collection
 Singapore
 Germany 
 Portland
 Italy
Expresso and Pastries at the American Adventure
Liberty Inn 
Fire and Drum
Hops and Barley
Block and Hans 
Japan 
Morocco
Belgium 
Brazil
France
Ireland
Showcase Coffee Cart
Canada
Greece
Refreshment Port
Puerto Rico
Desserts and Champagne
 Hawai’i 
 Scotland 
  
        From what I was told, the best way to tackle Food and Wine was to take a set amount of money and only spend that amount, so that’s what I did. I took $50 cash and left my card at home; luckily and surprisingly I only spent about $35 of it and didn’t eat anything the rest of the day because I was so stuffed! I also heard everything is big enough to share, so I did that too. Last Tuesday my friend Nickelle and I went to Food and Wine ready for a good time! We decided that we would dress up and be cute since we NEVER get to do that here. So we met up in our matching outfits (which was not planned) and after 3 hours, 2 bus rides, and an hour thunderstorm we finally made it to Epcot, and we were hungry!! We made it part of the way around the world before getting too full and plan on getting all the way around to every booth before the Festival ends. 

Here is what we had while there! 

  Terra: Crab’less crabcake, pepper slaw, and Cajun remoulade. This was so yummy and it was huge crab cake. We didn’t realize the crabless part until about an hour later when we were informed that this was the vegan stand but this dish was still one of my favorite things I had that day. It tasted like a regular crab cake with a little kick to it. 

Australia: Crispy Meringue Shell with Fresh Berries and Vanilla Custard. So we thought this would be like a custard with a crust topped with berries. Well it wasn’t. It turned out to be a crispy wafer type of thing with custard on top of it. The wafer was tasty and different, but melted in your mouth. The custard was really good as well but together the 2 were very sweet. 

Mexico: In Mexico was where things got serious and Nickelle and I got strategic. Nickelle got the shrimp taco which had Pico, onions, tomatoes and fired shrimp. . . A+! it was an amazing taco! I got the rib-eye taco with a strawberry-mango margarita. This was really good too! The beef was tender, and was a little spicy, like dry chipotle spicy. The taco and margarita were one of the suggested pairings and something that I can never resist (especially now that I am of age!) 

Farm Fresh: Here we tried the Bacon Hash with cheese and pickled peppers. This was basically breakfast potatoes with melted cheese, bacon, and jalapenos on it. Not my favorite thing we had all day but we tried. At this station they also had a Key Lime wine that was delish! It was like a sweet, crisp white wine with a citrus taste to it. 

Germany: This was where Nickelle and I split up; while she got food from Germany I got food from Singapore and we shared them. She got Schinkennudeln Pasta Gratin with Ham and Cheese. This dish was basically like a baked mac’n’cheese but had a little too much cheese for my taste. I also don’t remember tasting any ham in it. 

Singapore: From this booth we tried Lemongrass Chicken Curry. Normally I think of curry as pretty spicy but this curry was sweet because it had coconut in it! like real raw coconut that got stuck in my mouth as I was eating it. I like this but it wasn’t my favorite. After a few bites it started to taste bland and boring. 

Belgium: Belgium lives up to their waffle stereotype at Disney because all that was at this booth was waffles. Nickelle got the Chocolate Ganache Waffle and I got the Waffle with Berry Compote. I loved the waffles and they were really good but  a bit under whelming. I thought the chocolate waffle would be stuffed or infused with chocolate but it was just a waffle with whipped cream on top drizzled with chocolate sauce. Really good and the chocolate was really rich but I didn’t like that the waffle melted the whipped cream because it was so warm. The berry waffle was what I thought it would be; a waffle with a berry compote on top, however, I liked this one better than the chocolate. I think what I dislike the most about this station was that all of the waffles were premade the exact same way then topped with their respective toppings. Kinda boring for Disney. 

Dessert and Champagne: by this point Nickelle and I were so full we could barely walk let alone eat but we had to try this one! Here we got a Frozen s’mores and the Dessert Trio. The Frozen s’mores was like a frozen hot chocolate (it tasted like Nutella) topped with marshmallows and a graham cracker. The texture was like a cheap slushy and was weird but it was still good! The dessert trio was amazing! This included Passion Fruit Coconut Creamsicle, Blueberry Lime Cheesecake roll and Chocolate Espresso Opera. All three were delicious but I didn’t like the creamsicle one as much as the other too; there were too many different textures going on in that tiny little cup. 

Walking around the World Showcase at Epcot is always fun and very interesting. One of my favorite things about going to Epcot is meeting the college program students who work at World Pavilion. About 95% of the CP’s working at Epcot work in the country that they are from. When I get the opportunity to talk with them about their experience and how they like working and the college program it is so different from mine but also similar in some areas. It makes me grateful to be here! 

I’m so happy that I can go to Food and wine at my leisure because there are so many things I want to try. I have to eat my way around the world before November 10!