Epcot's Food and Wine Festival

 

We attended the first week of Epcot's Food and Wine Festival and this is how it went!

With any festival, we usually work our way through the festival passport. 

Last year for Food and Wine we did Emile's Fromage Montage, where we collected stamps in the festival passport for purchasing 5 cheese dishes. A lot of the Fromage Montage  cheese dishes for this year were the same as last year. There were some we enjoyed, like the Cheddar Cheese Soup from Canada, but there were others that we would not bother getting again,  so we didn't even try to fill up our passport.

Instead, we just hit up a few booths this year.

Disney Tip: For all festivals, the keychain gift cards are available. You can load them up with any amount of $15 or more. This is convenient because you can just wear it around your wrist as you go from booth to booth, ( no hassle of getting your wallet out each time).  

This year the gift card designs were Chef Minnie or Chef Mickey. When you get yours, ask the cast member for a piece of tape to wrap around the clasp. You don't want to risk losing your gift card. 

The first booth we started at was The Fry basket. We got the same Fry Flight we did last year, plus we got the Pickle Fries, which was a new addition this year.

The fry flight was great as always, but the sweet potato casserole fries were my favorite.  They came with a generous topping of candied pecans, toasted marshmallow cream, and maple bourbon glaze. The other fries were the Sea Salt and Malt Vinegar, and the BBQ Bacon Fries.

The pickle fries were a little challenging to eat without all the batter falling off the pickle. These were pickle spears that were fried. I have had pickle chips ( which are the round pickles that are fried) and I prefer them. I usually dip my pickle chips in Thousand Island dressing, but these spears came with a Dill Ranch dip that was okay. 

                            

In Mexico, Lacey had her traditional Avocado Margarita ( which is not an exclusive festival beverage but is too good for her not to pass up).

And I decided to try one of the Joffrey's cold brews that were exclusive to the festival. This one was the Nutty Caramel Mocha cold brew (a sweet blend of  caramel mudslide cold brew, caramel sauce, peanut butter syrup and chocolate syrup topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce).  This was amazing and very refreshing. This was found at the kiosk near the American Pavilion. 

In the Alps, we tried the Dark Chocolate  Fondue with berries, pound cake, and meringues. 

This was only okay. I don't think this was the best chocolate I ever had. In fact, it wasn't very thick for dipping. The Sipping Chocolates we had during the Festival of the Arts would have made better fondue. 

In Spain Lacey tried the Seafood Salad which she said was very enjoyable and refreshing. 

It came with shrimp, bay scallops, mussels, extra virgin olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, and smoked paprika. 

In Japan, Lacey had the Fire Taiko Roll, which was a Sushi Roll with spicy tuna, cucumber, and pickled daikon radish served with a spicy sauce. 

Lacey likes Sushi rolls, so she really enjoyed this one.

By the time we made it to Morocco, it started to rain really hard, so we spent a lot of time inside the Tangerine Cafe: Flavors of the Medina.

I started off with the Pistachio cake with cinnamon pastry cream and candied walnuts. This was super yummy. The cake had some substance to it but it was still a light dessert full of flavor. I highly recommend this one!

While in Morocco Lacey decided to get the Stone baked Moroccan bread with the three dips. The dips were hummus, chermoula, and zhoug. The hummus was traditional hummus and the other two dips were a sort of oil. The bread was not dense, it was more like a pita. The dips were all good but we definitely had a lot left over. It should have come with 2 pieces of bread instead of just the one.

We also tried the Cider flight. The flavors were  Fig hard cider, Raspberry citrus hard cider, and Peach & Blackberry hard cider. Each of them were very tasty. The flight came with a card so you knew which cider was which flavor. 

In Belgium, I had the Beer Braised Beef served with Gouda Mashed potatoes.  This dish didn't look pretty, but it was very yummy. It was like a Sunday dinner. The beef was very tender and the mashed potatoes were like traditional mashed potatoes. They were not over powered by the Gouda. In fact, I couldn't even taste a pungent cheese flavor ( which was a good thing for me).

This was the extent of what we tasted during the first week. There will be additional food and beverage booths opening up later in August and more in September.  At the end of this post I will share the dishes we had last year that are still on the menu for this year.

The food booths aren't the only reason to check out the Food and Wine Festival. On select nights, they have stage shows with pretty notable singers.  We returned to the festival this past weekend to see the Tiffany concert.  There are three shows a night in the American Gardens Theatre, they are at 5:30 pm, 6:45 pm, and 8:00 pm. Each show is about a half hour.  We attended the 6:45 show and it wasn't very crowded. In fact, we had a seat right down front ( behind the reserved seating section).

We were excited for this concert. It's an outdoor venue so you can bring food and drink in with you. We had our popcorn bucket filled and our Joffrey's cold brew. We were ready.  It was a nice concert, but she only sang one of her original songs.

Some of the songs she sang where:

I saw him standing there ( which was a remake of the Beetle's version. This was actually on one of her albums), Heartbreaker ( cover) Hungry like a wolf ( cover) , We got the Beat (cover), and of course she ended with I Think We're Alone Now, which we all loved.  This concert brought back a little bit of nostalgia! 

Here is the line up of additional concerts coming this fall. 

Take a look at the other festival offerings that we tried last year ( that are still available now), so you know which ones to avoid!   What we ate at Food and Wine Festival last year.

What has been your favorite food, beverage, or event at Food and Wine Festival?

Till next time.... M & L

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Disney's Wine and Dine Half Marathon

Epcot's Festival of the Arts

Epcot's Festival of the Holidays