Disney's Culinary Tour

One of the days we were at Disney we took a culinary tour at Animal Kingdom Lodge.  I stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge last year when I went on vacation with Scott but I had no idea about the culinary tour then. I wish I did because this was something I know Scott would have liked to do (he's not so much a parks person).


The culinary tour takes place at the African restaurant Jiko. We met our tour guide their around 4:15 pm and she shared a little about the restaurant and the African history that inspired it's decor. We then got to talk about the important stuff...the food!

We talked about the kitchen, the wood fire grill and how some of the food was made. We were then offered samples of some appetizers.


 We started out with a plate called "Tastes of Africa" (African inspired dips, pappadum, seasame fatir, housemade flax seed naan) .These were all different types of dips with different breads and pita chips. One dip was a mango chutney, one was cucumber, one was hummus, and one was something spicy.

We were then taken across the hall to Boma, the African inspired buffet. We learned more history about Africa from our new tour guide.  We talked again about how the food was prepared here and how it is traditionally done in Africa.

And then of course more samples.


This Butternut squash soup was simply amazing! It tasted like liquid pumpkin pie and whipped cream.

The tour guide dripped my soup while serving it up. I'm not that messy of an eater.

The tour guide said we could have the recipe if we filled out a card with our email address but I didn't want to give my email out so I am hoping I can find this recipe online. I actually have two Disney cookbooks at home that have recipes from the parks and resorts so maybe it is already in there. I wouldn't know because I've never actually made anything out of those books..haha


The last thing we sampled on the tour was dessert.


 We had Zebra domes for dessert. I had heard of Zebra domes before but have not had them. They are like chocolate truffles but some may or may not have alcohol in them.


Mine was very good but it did not have a very strong flavor to it so I do not think it had alcohol. Another guest on the tour said his did have alcohol.  Either way, it was yummy.  Maybe this dessert is in my cookbook too?

Doing a culinary tour is a great way to learn about the food and the culture of the place you are visiting. It was something we had never done at Disney so I'm glad we took the opportunity to do this and have some yummy snacks too.







19 comments:

  1. Interesting I do not think I ever had African food. I think it is probably one of the kinds of foods I know the least about! Although I have had Little Debbie Zebra cakes... HAHAHAHA!

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  2. Food tours are one of my very favorite things to do! I was hoping to do one when we were in Boise, but alas, I was sick so it didn't happen. At least I didn't get sick until after my half!

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  3. Looks like fun! I've only been on cruise ship culinary tours. They're fascinating.

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  4. That sounds like a lot of fun -- and great to learn more about the African origins. We've done chocolate tours ....

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  5. How much fun! I actually ate there when I was at the hotel. Such a cool place. Would have loved this tour.

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  6. This looks like so much fun! I'm more of a food person that a parks person, so I'd have loved this, too! That soup - YUM!

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  7. How fun! The closest to that I've done is eating my way around World Showcase during the Food and Wine festival. My parents have done culinary tours in New Orleans, Santa Fe, and are signed up for one in Alaska.

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  8. This sounds like a foodie's dream tour at Disney! I never knew that such a tour existed but I'll have to keep this in mind for a future Disney trip.

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  9. I cant even imagine the food budget at Disney!!!!

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  10. I always stay at the Animal Kingdom! I love it. I have stayed at almost all of the Disney hotels and its still my favorite. I did the culinary tour as well. So yummy

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  11. We have done culinary and foodie tours in a bunch of cities. Super fun aren't they?!

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  12. I love food tours! Like you said, a great way to learn about another culture.

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  13. This looks like a super neat tour and definitely one we would enjoy! We also love butternut squash soup from Disney cruise line and I’ve made it several times at home from recipes I’ve found online! Yum!!

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  14. I didn't know Disney did tours like this...but we've always had our kids with us, so we certainly weren't looking for anything like this to do LOL

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  15. Yum! Sounds like a fun tour. I love trying new foods that I would likely never make. (And I have a throw away email address precisely for times like that.)

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  16. How fun is that? You know what, when we were at WDW, we were not thrilled with the food. I'm sure for the tour, they take you to all the yummy spots.

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  17. I’ve never taken a culinary tour at Disney. The food at Jiko looks very tempting!

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  18. Totally different thing to do at Disney, and it sounds like a nice, cool thing to do.

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