Behind The Fork: Did You Say Food & Wine?? Yes Please!!

Well, it’s that time of year again. Football season is in full swing, the leaves are starting to change colors and there’s a little nip in the evening air (at least up north). Here in Florida though, ‘tis the season for tricks, treats and blood curtailing screams. Most people are excited about the Halloween activities at the local theme parks: Halloween Horror Nights, Howl-O-Scream and Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. All these events are great fun to go to, but they’re not something that I really look forward to.

Once a year, from the end of September thru the beginning of November, Disney World holds the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. They set up booths throughout the World Showcase area that offer food and drink items from various countries across the globe. While it is an additional charge for these items, everything is reasonably prices and portion sizes are comparable to the price.

This year there are 30 booths offering various delicious and sometimes unusual treats. The booths this year include: Terra, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Mexico, Singapore, China, South Korea, Africa, Cheese, Brewer’s Collection, Germany, Poland, Italy, American Adventure Coffee Cart, Hops & Barley, Florida Local, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Belgium, France, Ireland, Canada, Greece, Refreshment Port, Desserts & Champagne, Hawai’i, Scotland and Craft Beers. Obviously not all of these booths are countries, but they all have unique offerings for visitors and each area usually offers 2-3 food and 3-4 drink options. There are many things, drinks in particular, which I would not have tried otherwise.

The festival has been going on for two weeks so far and I have been there 3 times thanks to my Disney annual pass. All 3 trips have been great opportunities to try new things and partake in the things I already know are good grinds. To date, I have visited 15 of the 30 booths and tried a cornucopia of amazing food and drinks.

Since I’ve been to Food & Wine three times so far, I’ve decided to pick out the 3 foods that really stick out in my mind. The first has to be the Lemongrass Chicken Curry with Coconut & Jasmine Rice from the Singapore. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love curry. It is one food that has been in my life since childhood. My Aunty Jane and Uncle Alfred make the best curry I’ve ever tasted, hands down. However that does not prevent me from enjoying all sorts of curry dishes. I had high hopes for this dish and was really bummed when it was handed to me. It was more like a curry soup. I had to use a spoon to scoop up the little bit of chicken and rice that was in it. The flavor was pretty decent though. The yellow curry, cumin and coconut were the prominent flavors in this dish. There was also quite a bit of oil or grease that seemed to float in the curry which didn’t really help its appetizing factor. I didn’t taste lemongrass or the jasmine from the rice. It was a definite let down and I ended up throwing half of it away (and I NEVER throw away food). If I had to rate this, I’d give it a D overall.

In the 3-4 years that I have been going to Food & Wine, there has been a dish that I’ve always been curious about but have never had the guts to try. This year I sucked it up, walked over to the France booth and order Escargots Persillade en Brioche. That’s garlic and parsley snails in brioche, for all you non-French speakers. Yup, I ate snails and they were pretty good. The key was not to think about what I was eating, but to focus on trying a new food. My biggest worry was the texture. I had heard that snails can me a little tough to chew. These little guys weren’t tough at all. When you get your plate of snails, it’s basically 3 mini brioche (bread) bowls containing one snail each. The first snail I ate was by itself, no bread to mask the flavor or texture. It had the strong taste of garlic and parsley, but it was smooth and melted in my mouth. The other two I ate with the bread bowls, but I will never bad mouth snails again. This was a strong B overall.

There have been many good foods over the last few visits, but if I had to choose my favorite food so far it has to be the Craisin Bread Pudding with Grand Marnier Anglaise from the Hops & Barley booth. This is a basic bread pudding where the raisins are replaced with Craisins and the vanilla sauce is replaced with the Grand Marnier anglaise. When I first ordered this, I had no idea what “anglaise” was. I just figured that since I liked Craisin, bread pudding and just about anything with Grand Marnier in it, I should like this dish. Boy oh boy, was I right! This turned out to be my favorite food item so far this year. When they handed me my plate, my eyes went wide and I’m pretty sure I started to drool a little. The portion size was much bigger than expected. The bread pudding was perfectly cooked with a little crunch on top and a soft, smooth finish. The Craisins gave it a slight tartness, while the Grand Marnier anglaise sweetened it slightly and contributed to the smooth finish. I liked it so much, that I went back and had it again on my second trip to the festival. Overall I’d give it an A+.

I’m looking forward to going back to Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival many more times this month. Until then, here’s a list of the other foods and drinks I’ve had so far this year. I've also given them my overall rating. There are a also a few pictures of some of the things I've tried thus far.

· Argentina: Beef Empanada (B)	· Mexico: Tequila Flight (A)
· Africa: Spinach and Paneer Cheese Pocket (B+)	· Cheese: Almond Crusted Blue Cheese Soufflé with Fig Jam (F-)
· Germany: Schinkennudeln - Pasta Gratin with Ham and Cheese (B+)	· Morocco: Kefta Pocket (B-)
· New Zealand: Lamb Meatball with Spicy Tomato Chutney (A-)	· Hawai’i: Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour Dole Pineapple (C+)
· Scotland: Scottish Banoffee Tart with Bananas, Scotch Whiskey Toffee, Walkers Shortbread Crumbles & Sweet Cream (A-)	· Ireland: Warm Chocolate Pudding with Bailey’s -Custard (A-) / Chilled Irish Coffee featuring Bunratty Potcheen (A-)
· Italy: Ravioli de Formaggio all’Emiliana – Baked Cheese Ravioli with Creamy Beef Bolognese Sauce, Parmesan & Mozzarella (B+) / Cannoli al Cioccolato – Chocolate Covered Cannoli filled with Sweet Ricotta, Chocolate & Candied Fruit (A+)	· China: Chicken Potstickers (C+) / Happy Lychee with Vodka (A-)