Welcome to the first stop aboard Magical Blogorail Blue. Enjoy the ride as we discuss Epcot's Food & Wine Festival fun in the parks, at home, and beyond!
I have never before experienced the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. Our trips for the past several years have been either during school holidays when we travel with our friends for for the race weekends when we participate in runDisney events.
Luckily, this year, we've decided to enter runDisney's Wine and Dine half marathon - a race now scheduled in November, occurring during the final weekend of the Food and Wine Festival. An evening race, we will begin after 10 p.m., run 13.1 miles, then conclude in the World Showcase, supposedly with some of the Food and Wine kiosks open for testing - but, we will also have a few days before and after race day to experience several of the options available!
Now, to create my
Perfect Food and Wine Meal
I visited the Official Epcot Food and Wine Festival Website to learn more about the options that will be available at the kiosks. With more than 25 kiosks for foods and beverages, I'm sure I'll have to stop by more than one time, but if I could do a several course meal all in one afternoon? Here's what it would be:
Appetizer Course
Like just about all of my favorites - I'm going to start at the Greece booth. For years, I've heard A.J. of the Disney Food blog talk about the amazingness of the Griddled Greek Cheese with pistachios and honey - and really, what about that doesn't sound perfect? Of course, everything else there sounds perfect, so I'll have to stop by again to experience the vegetarian Moussaka, Chicken Gyro, and Spanikopita.. but for now, I'll move along...
Soup Course
Wait, wait - I can get the fan favorite, tried and true Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup without having to get an ADR for Le Cellier 6 months in advance and have a delicious, yet very expensive meal? Perfect. I only hope I can get a pretzel bread stick with it - but I love this soup and definitely hope to pick up a bowl at the Festival. Definitely easier than cooking it myself at home!
I'm drooling just thinking about this soup...
First Course
I've always been a fan of Asian cuisine - I was raised eating Chinese regularly, but have acquired a taste for Thai (favorite), Japanese, and some Korean. And, since I'm saying Asian, I may mention that my whole household, including the 2 and 4 year olds, love Indian food. Like crave and ask for it - the little boys!
Anyways, the Singapore booth boasts a Lemongrass chicken curry with coconut and jasmine rice - gluten free for anyone that has those sensitivities/allergies. I don't have those food issues, but the lemongrass curry? This sounds right up my alley. And, if it's not as great as I hope, I may or may not head to the China and Japan pavilions to sample their potstickers/dumplings... Because really... there is always room for dumplings.Dessert Course
France is calling my name for dessert - Creme brulee caramel fleur de sel. You say salted caramel, and I'm there. I'll enjoy that with a chilled coffee with Godiva Chocolate Liqueur from Belgium and I'll be set!
Cheese Course
For purposes of this post only - because I could definitely not eat this all in one sitting - I'm going to pretend to be European and end with a cheese course. For that, I'm going to head to the Hops and Barley booth. I may not be a beer person, but these particular cheeses sound great: Artisan cheese plate featuring Cabot Cloth-wrapped cheddar, Purple Haze chèvre goat cheese and Cave Man blue cheese.
I may need to run an extra half marathon to make up for all of that!
Thank you for joining me today. Your next stop on the Magical Blogorail Loop is Home is Where the Mouse Is.
Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:
**1st Stop ~ Disney Babies Blog - Food & Wine Perfect Meal
2nd Stop ~ Home is Where the Mouse Is - Duffy's International Food Festival
3rd Stop ~ Rolling with the Magic - Food & Wine Fun Outside of Epcot
4th Stop ~ Adventure in the Great Wide Somewhere - Art of Entertaining
Final Stop ~ Sparks of Magic - Gluten-Free Goodness at the Disneyland Resort
This sounds delicious! Good luck in the race! That'll be FUN! What F&W foods will help you carb up best before the race!? ;)
ReplyDeleteWow! I think I better just steer clear of Food & Wine! Too much yummy food and you want to try it all! If you could only try one thing, what would you choose?
ReplyDeleteYou have some delicious sounding choices. It all makes me excited to go to my first F&W this year. We'll be running the Wine and Dine too! We'll be there a few days before too. Do you think there's anything that we should avoid eating before race day and save for after?
ReplyDeleteThose dumplings sound amazing! One of these days I'll make it back for Food & Wine, but for now I'll have to settle for making some of the recipes at home. Can't wait to hear about your trip!
ReplyDeleteI love Food & Wine Festival. Have you tried the croissant doughnut yet?
ReplyDeleteOh man, everything sounds so amazing! I LOVE Caramel Brûlée. This blogorail is going to make me gain 10 pounds just reading! However, this sounds like a really fun weekend and run!
ReplyDeleteHave you ever tried to make any of these at home?
ReplyDeleteonly the cheddar soup - but that didn't turn out anywhere near as well!
ReplyDeleteI love basically anyhing salted caramel!
ReplyDeletea version of it... but only of the home of the cronut in NY - never at Epcot!
ReplyDeletethose dumplings are out of control - not sure they'll come close at epcot, but still want to try!
ReplyDeleteI honestly probably won't try much before race - I'll stick to my carbs and avoid grease and alcohol, sadly enough!
ReplyDeletefrom what I've heard over and over, the thing I would try would be the griddled cheese from Greece!
ReplyDeleteI didn't really see anything that is really good pre-race food but a TON of great post race treats!
ReplyDeleteI love the Cheddar Cheese soup! Also, that Brûlée is really good also! Thanks for sharing! I'd also suggest checking out a Cannoli in Italy! It was very tasty also! Have a great time, Jenn!
ReplyDeleteYou will LOVE the Greece Booth. It's always one of my favorites and I've always loved everything that I have tried. Especially the griddled cheese! I hope you have a great time. I'm looking forward to seeing your photos!
ReplyDeleteOh man - I LOVE the cheddar cheese soup. We're always there when it's brutally hot, so I'm never really happy about getting it to go, but October during Food & Wine sounds like the PERFECT time for this!
ReplyDelete