Now that we are at the end of this year’s Food and Wine festival at Epcot I wanted to share a post with you all looking back on the treats we enjoyed while we were there and what our highlight foods and drinks were!
We booked our Florida trip 2 years before we went, and honestly hadn’t done that much research about what to expect from a mid September booking (other than we were banking on there not being as many kids). But in the months leading up to our trip, and the blogs, insta account tips and internet research we did, we discovered we couldn’t have possibly booked a better time! Not only could we enjoy all of the Halloween decorations/parades/MNSSHP but we also could soak up the delights of the Epcot Food and Wine Festival! One trip with 2 annual festivals! Winning!
For those who don’t know, every year Epcot holds a F&W Festival at the World Showcase Pavilion. Guests can eat and drink their way around the world with booths at each ‘country’ that sell 3-4 key dishes that represent them. As a BIG fan of eating and also of trying new foods I was very excited that this would be on during our visit! 🙂
If I’m honest, my main goal was to drink around the world! 11 countries are represented at the World Pavilion, so 11 local drinks would have been a cracking day out! 😛 But once we were there it was honestly so hot that we couldn’t face it! Which is crazy to see me turn down a drink! Just shows you how hot it was! My only criticism of Epcot is there isn’t enough shade along the Pavilion. If it was an overcast day this might have been a very different drunken blog post. 😉
Firstly, the most important thing that we learned was that the Disney Dining ‘Quick Service’ meal credits can be swapped in for 3 snack credits which can be used at the Food and Wine stands! Which was such a helpful thing to learn as; 1. We didn’t end up spending too much money as those little dishes can be pricey… and 2. we didn’t feel restricted about trying new and interesting things as we weren’t spending ‘real money’. So meant that we tried way more than we probably would have! So if you are on the Disney Dining plan during Food and Wine next time you go, I would highly recommend this little tip 🙂
Because we were spending meal credits and getting 3 snacks at a time the only annoying thing was they all had to come from the same booth. So we basically just wandered round picking our favorite countries to try food from and getting 3 snacks from each.
There was no method to the madness, just whatever took our fancy on the menus 🙂
New Zealand
First stop was New Zealand.
- Steamed Green Lip Mussels with Garlic Butter and Toasted Breadcrumbs
- Lamb Meatball with Spicy Tomato Chutney
- Seared Venison Sausage with Kumara Puree and Wild Mushroom Marsala Sauce
We are both big fans of all these foods anyway and this sounded delish. Everything we tried we halved so we could both get a bit of everything. I was expecting the mussels to be my fave as they normally are, but this time not so much! I prefer them creamy but these had a bit of a kick. The lamb again was a bit too spicy for me, but cooked to perfection. But the star here was definitely the Venison. So delicious and well cooked.
Lamb Meatball with Spicy Tomato Chutney
Seared Venison Sausage with Kumara Puree and Wild Mushroom Marsala Sauce
Steamed Green Lip Mussels with Garlic Butter and Toasted Breadcrumbs
Hawai’i
Then of course we HAD to go for Hawai’i. Being a massive fan of the culture (and Moana :P) I was really excited to try out some of the food. And it did not disappoint from what I expected; very sweet and lots of meat.
- Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour DOLE Pineapple Chutney and Spicy Mayonnaise
- Grilled Tuna Tataki with Seaweed Salad, Pickled Cucumbers, and Wasabi Cream
- Teriyaki-glazed SPAM Hash with Potatoes, Peppers, Onions, and Spicy Mayonnaise
I LOVE that they had to make the Pineapple in this the Dole version! Any Disney fan knows a Pineapple Dole Whip is an iconic classic snack of the parks and so I loved this twist. I think the Pork and Pineapple slider was actually my favorite, I am always a fan of the meat and fruit combination (sorry to people who hate ham and pineapple :P). I wasn’t expecting to like the Spam hash either but this was again one of my faves! I think I had the notion that Spam was a bland food but this was actually so good! The opposite can be said for the Tuna, I was expecting to love this as I’m a huge Seafood fan, but actually really didn’t! It was clearly cooked in a fancy way as it was very rare and I wasn’t really into it – maybe I’m just not very fancy! 😛
Teriyaki-glazed SPAM Hash with Potatoes, Peppers, Onions and Spicy Mayonnaise
Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour DOLE Pineapple Chutney and Spicy Mayonnaise
Grilled Tuna Tataki with Seaweed Salad, Pickled Cucumbers and Wasabi Cream
China
I LOVE Chinese food. Like I think a bit too much. If I had to live off just one countries food, it would be China. Although the ‘English versions’ of Chinese food are not good for my waist line!! So of course we had to go for something on the Chinese menu. (As you can see from the photo we had some of that notorious Florida rain just before this sampling so the table is a bit wet!!)
- Chicken Dumplings with Chinese Slaw
- Beijing Roasted Duck Bao Bun with Hoisin Sauce
- Black Pepper Shrimp with Garlic Noodles
I will just start this by saying I thought all of this food was the best and this was the best booth. I am definitely bias as this is my fave food group anyway but it was all so good! The dumplings were so sweet and flavourful and the Duck had the best Hoisin Sauce I have ever tasted! I also loved the noodles that were with the Shrimp as normally these are quite thin but these were really wholesome and hearty 🙂
Beijing Roasted Duck Bao Bun with Hoisin Sauce
Chicken Dumplings with Chinese Slaw
Black Pepper Shrimp with Garlic Noodles
Coastal Eats
As mentioned before we are both BIG fans of Seafood so we just had to stop here.
- Lump Crab Cake with Napa Cabbage Slaw and Avocado-lemongrass Cream
- Baked Shrimp Scampi Dip with Sourdough Baguette
- Seared Scallops with Roasted Corn and Butterbean Succotash and Chilli-chipotle Butter Sauce
The Shrimp and dip I have to say I wasn’t a big fan of…I thought there was way too much dip compared to anything else and the flavours were quite overpoweringly cheesy….I also wouldn’t really call this a dip, it was more like a soup than anything….but you can’t win them all! haha. I really liked the Slaw that came with the Crab Cake, which is funny because it wasn’t even the main event. The Crab Cake was fine, pretty standard, but I was loving that Slaw! 😛 The Scallops were also cooked sooooo well and perfect texture. Sometimes I find Scallops can be really over cooked and tough but these were great.
Baked Shrimp Scampi Dip with Sourdough Bread
Lump Crab Cake with Napa Cabbage Slaw and Avocado-lemongrass Cream
Seared Scallops with Roasted Corn and Butterbean Succotash and Chilli-chipotle Butter Sauce
Light Lab
Well…even though it was hot…we had to have a little drink to ‘cool down’…. 😛 We opted for the cider tasting board which was super fun and the whole Light Lab bar area was just really cool and all dark inside with Neon lighting.
I thought these were all pretty tasty to be honest, although I wasn’t that wowed by the ‘Grasslands’ offering but I think it might just have been my brain thinking the green colour was putting me off! 😛
RGB Flight
- Playalinda Brewing Co. Red Cherry Tart, Titusville, FL
- GrassLands Brewing Company Green Kiwi Blonde, Tallahassee, FL
- M.I.A. Beer Company Blue-berry Golden Ale, Doral, FL
All in all, Food and Wine Festival, HUGE thumbs up.
I wouldn’t say this is an activity that kids would particularly care about (I know I didn’t stray far from chicken nuggets and chips when I was younger and wasn’t interested in anything more diverse…). But they did have a super cute game for the kids of hide and seek with Remy from Ratatouille. He was hidden in each country and you had to keep an eye out for him and collect stickers at each place. We spotted a few along our travels, and he is pretty adorable. 🙂
But if you are on a Grown Ups trip/day then I think this is such a fun day to try new foods and experience new cultures 🙂 If you are heading to Epcot in Florida from late August to mid November I would HIGHLY recommend this as part of your trip if you are going as a couple, as a group or flying solo.
Overall experience 5/5. Would defo do again. I like food. 🙂
On Cloud Katy 