Epcot Food & Wine Festival

Jonathan and I had free Disney passes for volunteering, so we utilized them during Epcot's Food & Wine Festival. I had never been before, but Jonathan went a few years ago. As you may already know, about half of the park is a "Word Showcase," featuring rides, pavilions, foods, films, and other things from various countries. During the Food & Wine Festival, additional countries are on display, and each has a kiosk where they sell small portions of authentic cuisine and drinks. This is where the fact that our tickets and parking was free comes into play... we spent about $50 on food and drink. But it was delicious! Everything was wonderful, so we have no regrets. And besides, places like South Korea and Ireland are not at the top of our international travel list, anyway.

We spent several hours doing the attractions throughout the park, but at 6pm we began our little tour of world cuisine. We technically walked the Festival backwards, but we'd actually recommend doing it that way.

Our first stop was Charcuterie & Cheese, which isn't specific to any one country, but specializes in wines & cheeses. We had the Nueske's Charcuterie Plate, which had smoked beef, duck, and ham with bread. It was all good, but the beef in particular had a nice flavor. I also had the sample of Prosecco, a peach sparking wine by Martini & Rossi. It was nothing special. Canada was next, where we shared the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup (one of our favorites of the night) and tried the Inniskillin Pearl Vidal Icewine. Now, we adore icewine but rarely have it because it's expensive. It was wonderful here, tho a little thick (also not uncommon with icewine). I wanted to stop at Ireland for the Lobster and Scallop Fisherman's Pie, which was absolutely scrumptious. It had carrots and onions in it, and the scallops were plentiful. It was topped with a baked mashed potato, and I'd probably call it my favorite item, tied with the cheese soup. Jonathan liked it, especially because he had a big lump of lobster in his bite!

Morocco was a bit of a let-down, as we went with the Tangerine Mimosa Royale, which wasn't anything special. Tasted like you'd expect, and was a bit pricey for the serving size.

I think Jonathan's favorite was probably Australia. He had a grilled lamb chop with roasted potato salad and red wine reduction. I tried it, but of course I don't really like lamb. I thought the potatoes had a nice flavor, despite the red wine drizzle. I had considered getting the Lamington from that station as well, but it turned out that the chocolate-covered butter cake was also covered in coconut, so I skipped it.

Then it was on to Germany! We were really looking forward to that one, and honestly would've ordered everything on the menu (except the two beers) if we weren't pacing ourselves! They had 4 Rieslings to try, and since Jonathan enjoys Riesling, he was hard-pressed to choose one. He went with the Gunderloch Diva Spätlese, which ended up being rather sweet, and even I enjoyed it. We also had a Nürnberger Sausage in a pretzel roll, which came with a wonderful mustard and was delicious (and probably the largest portion for the price that we had anywhere). Again, I had planned on trying the Apfel Strudel with Werther's Oiriginal Karamell Sauce, but was told it was covered in nuts, so I refrained. Our next stop was South Korea, where we couldn't resist the Barbecue Short Ribs with steamed rice and cucumber kimchi. The ribs had an excellent flavor, and I thoroughly missed the Korean sauces, since it's been so long since I've had that. I was getting pretty full, otherwise I would've dived right into finishing off the rice (which was sticky like sushi rice) and the cucumber (which was plentiful). After some deliberation, Jonathan tried the Grilled Pork Skewer with Farofa at the Brazil kiosk, which he enjoyed. Farofa is really ground up spices covering the pork, making it incredibly dry in your mouth, LoL. I thought it was kinda bland, especially since it was supposed to be a "rooty" flavor.

I was really excited about the Desserts & Champagne booth, and had planned to order two out of the three items. At this point, Jonathan was feeling like something chocolate, so he was probably going to order the third item. I was getting concerned about running out of money (we had picked up a Disney gift card earlier to make transactions faster), but it turned out that at that station only you could get all 3 items for just $3.50! That settled that! I dove into the Strawberry Angel Verrine, although Jonathan did try the middle part of that layered dessert, and found it to be very good. I enjoyed the Pear Streusel Pudding cake much more than he did, too. He did eat the bulk of the Dark Chocolate Sensation (kinda like a brownie bite with chocolate mousse on top) tho, which was fine with me. On our way to find a nice place to watch the fireworks, we stopped at the Puerto Rico location and got a Bacardi Frozen Torched Cherry Colada. It was very creamy, and probably the least coconut-ty colada I've ever had. It was a nice way to finish.

Richter's Burgers

Tori and I spent a day at Universal Studios in Orlando. I hadn't been to the park in about seven years (although it might have been six), and Tori hadn't been in several years, either.  We surveyed our lunch options and went with Richter's Burgers, where I had a burger and Tori had a chicken sandwich. Nothing awesome, but it was good and filled us up for the rest of the day – no dinner needed.

Royal Thai

In my second class on the very first day of ninth grade, I met a boy named Alan. He was new to our 6-12 school, and the only person he knew was one of my best friends at the time. So, we had lunch together that day, and became good friends (we had 4-6 classes together each year), and we've kept in touch through the years. He lives in Georgia now, but whenever we're in Florida, I try to ask him if he'll be around (he has family there). Luckily enough, he was in Orlando for a conference while we were in Melbourne for a week, so we made dinner plans one night.

We met at Royal Thai (off Semoran Blvd.), and it was great to catch up for a while. We were also very impressed with the Thai food! Jonathan and Alan both had the panang curry, while I went with "drunken noodles." It was chicken and shrimp in flat rice noodles with vegetables and chili sauce. It wasn't fantastic, but it was good. The entire place smelled wonderful, and the prices were very reasonable. Both boys thought the panang was really good, although it looked very typical to me. It was different, however, that the meal was served on a plate instead of in a bowl, and that the rice was scooped out of a big pot by the server instead of giving each person a small plate of it. We all decided that it was pretty good and we'd go there again. It was a shame we only got to see Alan for about an hour, but I'll take an hour every three years over nothing! :)

Graffiti Junktion = Awesome

When we landed in Orlando for a trip, Bryan, Joe, and DJ picked us up. We weren't in a hurry, and I had read about a newer place that had great reviews, so we headed over to the downtown area for a late dinner.

When we arrived at Graffiti Junktion, the place was hopping! It was seat-yourself, and we were quite fortunate to grab what looked like the last four-person table in the place (we added a chair on the end). Our waitress was awesome (her name was either Shannon or Melissa... we can't remember which), and we quickly had our drinks and placed an order. The restaurant was realllly loud at first, but we realized that was because there was a basketball game on (the Magic was playing), but there were less than 20 seconds to go, and after they won the place quieted a lot and emptied out some as well.

Their mojito is supposed to be really good, and Bryan, DJ, and Joe all liked it. I tried a sip, but I'm not a big mojito fan so I can't give it a fair review. The appetizer we got was potato skins. They were big and pretty standard as far as toppings and preparations go, but they came with sides of sour cream and Texas-style chili. There were only four, but they were pretty big. We all liked them.

Their burgers are their big draw, and that's what we all got. DJ got a turkey burger with sprouts, I had a regular burger with smoked gouda, and the rest of the group all got the buffalo burgers with various toppings. Joe and JB both got fried egg and canadian bacon on theirs. I'm not stretching the truth at all by saying that everybody was more than pleased with their meals. The entire way home and part of the next couple days we reminisced about how good those burgers were! The bun wasn't anything special, and I have never seen pickles sliced so thin, but it made for a great burger.

The fries were diner-ish... cut with skins on them and a little greasy... but still pretty okay. Get the barbecue sauce on the side... it is among the best I've ever had. I was the only one with anything left over to take home, and my microwaved burger was just as delicious the next day for lunch! What a winner we found!!

Auntie Anne's

My best friend and I were spending the day in Orlando.This included trying out the newest thing at Auntie Anne's. In case you haven't been lately, they now have a Pepperoni Pretzel, which is a typical pretzel covered in cheese and pepperoni slices. It's a hair more expensive than the other varieties ($3.09 before tax), but worth it. It tastes just like you'd imagine, LoL.